The monster traffic jam on the Beijing-Tibet highway was greatly eased on Sunday after a number of emergency measures were introduced and cross-regional coordination enhanced by the Ministry of Public Security.
However, experts said the jam was likely to reoccur in the near future as the root cause of the problem - huge transportation demand on limited road capacity - remained.
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Traffic is brought back to normal on Sunday in the Inner Mongolia section of the Beijing-Tibet highway after more than 10 days of congestion. [Liu Kai/China Daily]
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Apart from an 8-km section between the Inner Mongolia autonomous region and Hebei province, traffic was back to normal on sections that had been jammed for the past month, according to Xinhua News Agency on Sunday.
On Saturday, the Ministry of Public Security ordered traffic control departments in Beijing, Hebei and Inner Mongolia to establish a coordination center to tackle the jam.
The center will oversee the situation, release information and take measures to divert traffic flow if necessary, according to a statement released by the ministry on Saturday.
In addition, the center will work with road administration and health authorities to help deal with accidents and breakdowns. It will also join hands with civil affairs departments to ensure food and drink supplies as well as medical services to stranded drivers, the statement said.
The Beijing-Tibet highway, with a designed length of 3,700 km, will link Beijing to Lhasa of Southwest China's Tibet autonomous region once it is completed.
At present, the Beijing-Xining section is open to traffic and the Xining-Lhasa section is still under planning and construction. Currently, it is the only highway to Beijing and Tianjin from the northwest.
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