A ban on vehicles from outside of Nanjing using one of the city's main transport routes has sparked controversy.

The capital city of Jiangsu Province implemented the ban on Tuesday on the No 1 Yangtze River Bridge to try to ease growing congestion.

In recent years the bridge has been the centre of the most serious traffic jams in the city, which is divided by the country's longest river.

Although there are three bridges spanning over the river, complaints over congestion are normally about the No 1 Bridge, which is the most frequently used.

The ban has seen the local government stopping levying toll fees from vehicles with local plates, and turning away vehicles with non-native plates to other roads. The ban has attracted a mixed response in the city.

Xue Bo, a businessman who drives often to Nanjing from Nantong, a city on the northern side of the Yangtze River, is among those who object to the ban.

"I have also paid for the road maintenance fee every year, which helps maintain the bridge. Why should I be deprived of the right to use the bridge? To run by the second bridge will take me more time and more money," said Xue.

"It is really a kind of discrimination."

But Wang Shu, a driver of the No 132 bus which passes the bridge, said he was glad to see the ban.

"I can now drive at 50 kilometres an hour while crossing the bridge, while previously the speed was only 25, or even lower," said Wang.

He added it also took him more than 30 minutes to get over the bridge at rush hours.

According to Hu Xiaoxiang, director of Nanjing Communications Bureau, the ban is to ease the burden on the bridge, which has been overrun for years.

A survey conducted by Hu's bureau in June found that 64,000 vehicles passed the bridge every day, which is four times its estimated capacity.

"After the ban, the vehicle volume will hopefully drop by 8,000 every day," said Hu.

Hu added that ambulances, and trucks responsible for the supply of vegetables to the city, would be given special permission to use the bridge.

According to Hu, after the ban, the first bridge will turn into an inner-city transportation link, which will ensure a less congested route between the northern part and the southern part of the city.

"It will accelerate the development of the northern part, which is lagging behind right now," said Hu.

The ban will also help to balance the vehicle load on the three cross-river bridges over the Nanjing section of Yangtze River, according to Hu.

Nanjing's No 2 Yangtze River Bridge, 11 kilometres to the south of the first bridge, and No 3 Yangtze River Bridge, 19 kilometres to the north of the first bridge, now only sustain half of their estimated capacity, according to estimations made by Nanjing Communications Bureau.

"Both the No 2 and No 3 bridges are far away from the downtown area of Nanjing, so drivers like to choose the No 1 Bridge even though it is often crowded," said Qian Linbo, an expert from the Transportation Planning Research Institute of Nanjing.

According to Qian, another reason for the crowdedness on the first bridge is that the toll money it demands, which is 15 yuan (US$1.9) per vehicle on average, is far lower than the 40 yuan (US$5) charged by the toll gates of the other two.

In order to ease the traffic burden of the first bridge, local authorities in Nanjing have sought ways to solve it.

The Transportation Development Plan made by Nanjing municipal government in March revealed that there will be seven new cross-river passages within the next decade to improve the transport network in the area.

After the ban was revealed last month, a large number of vehicle-owners from surrounding cities sought to change their registration information to have local cars of Nanjing to try to avoid the new rules, according to staff with the communications bureau.

The No 1 Yangtze River Bridge, built in 1968, has long been seen as the major transport link between the northern and southern side of the river.

A major landmark of the city, the bridge was also the first of its kind made by Chinese engineers since the founding of New China in 1949.

(China Daily December 22, 2005)