In an effort to curb traffic congestion and ease pollution, a south-China city will now restrict new-car purchases.
Congestion in China's cities continues to rise. |
As of 1 July, Guangzhou became the fourth Chinese city to restrict the number of new-car sales, after Beijing, Shanghai and Guiyang. Sales have been restricted to just 10,000 units a month for one of the nation's most densely populated cities and local residents will have to compete in a monthly lottery organised by the government if they are to obtain a license plate.
The local passenger vehicle fleet in Guangzhou, Guangdong province, has risen 19% year-on-year over the past five years, which has in turn brought about congestion and a decrease in air quality. There are now 2.4 million vehicles in the sprawling south-China city, which is home to around 16 million people.
While a random lottery adopted by Guangzhou, Beijing and Guiyang seems a fair way of distributing the highly sought after license plates, Shanghai has opted for a more capitalistic approach. Each month, the city hosts an auction for the limited number of plates, which have seen competitive bidding push up prices to as much as 58,227 yuan ($9,155) per plate in the June auction.