Shanghai to curb government car use to save energy

THOUSANDS of government vehicles in Shanghai will be taken off the roads for at least one day each week from the first day of next month, the local government recently announced.

The new requirement applies to all government departments and operations, and is part of an energy-control drive that's trying to cut down power consumption by public services and buildings.

The new rule means government vehicles with license plates ending in a 1 or a 6 are not allowed to drive on Mondays, plates ending 2 or 7 can't drive on Tuesdays, 3 or 8 on Wednesdays, 4 or 9 Thursdays, and those ending 5 or 0 on Fridays.

The vehicles, categorized as "government business" cars, are used by government departments and their employees, senior-ranking officials and managers of state-owned companies.

The city government didn't specify how many government cars are in service in Shanghai, but a local information analyst working with government departments said there were thousands.

Jiangsu Province and Beijing have already implemented identical plans to clear government vehicles from the streets in response to the central government's call to reduce pollution and save energy.

About 1,000 vehicles are used by the Shanghai municipal government offices alone. These cars are easy to recognize because their plates start "Hu A 01", followed by a three-digit number. Other government-owned cars have no distinctive number plate, leading some to question how easy it will be to enforce the new rules.

"(Other) government vehicles can't be identified by their car plates," said Zhu Yunyi, an analyst with the Shanghai Information Center, when asked to comment if any supervision from the public could encourage public servants to adhere to the rules.

"I think the new rule is more symbolic, since there's no specified punishment, and there's no system for reporting the rule-breakers," said a public servant working in a municipal government department, who asked not to be named.

The local government also ordered yesterday that the air conditioning in public buildings should be kept no higher than 20 degrees Celsius this winter, and encouraged local residents to do the same and keep their air conditioning turned down to ease the city's huge power consumption.