The Chinese Ministry of Communications (MOC) has given the green light to emergency coal transportation on roads and waterways linking coal centers with the major parts of the country, and with the two newly opened road expressways.

The MOC said in Beijing on Wednesday that the two expressways for emergency coal transportation both start at Datong in Shanxi Province, one of China's coal cities, extending north via different cities to Beijing, and then to the Tianjin harbor, where the coal will be dispatched to the coastal areas in eastern or southern China by vessels.

The ministry has set up a special leading office in charge of road and waterway coal transportation, and the ministry has also printed standardized signs for those vehicles to be used for emergency transport, which will help these vehicles pass all roads without checks and inspections.

But it cautioned that any illegal transport, once found, will still be punished according to the law.

China is facing its most serious shortage of electric power this summer since the 1980s. Statistics show that the shortage of power will reach 30 million kilowatts.

As China still relies on coal for producing electricity, the low coal production and limited railway transportation capacity in China resulted in a tight supply of coal, especially that to supply electricity.

Many electric power plants in southern China asked for help in coal supply last year, while in the first half of this year, major power companies in east China once had to stop power production due to coal shortage.

An official with the MOC said the ministry is doing so to help release the pressure on railway transportation.

Since the end of last year, the MOC has organized many of its large shipping companies to withdraw some vessels from the overseas shipping market for emergency domestic coal transportation. At the same time, many Chinese ports like Qinhuangdao, Tianjin and Guangzhou, speeded up the process of enlarging and rebuilding their coal docks, so as to meet the increasing need of coal shipment.

(Xinhua News Agency July 28, 2004)