BEIJING, Mar. 3 -- Guangzhou is planning to introduce a no-vehicle day in its bid to build a national model city in environmental protection.

    The municipal government announced plans for the model city Wednesday, aiming to have Guangzhou meet higher standards by the end of the year, the Guangzhou Daily reported.

    The no-vehicle day could be held at the weekend, but buses, emergency vehicles and police cars would be exempt on the day.

    Guangzhou Mayor Zhang Guangning said the city had met most of the indexes for a model city, but had not qualified in two of the three basic aspects. The city had not met the standard of a national sanitary city and had not led other cities in comprehensive environment evaluation. The sanitary city title could be achieved after some effort was made, but a good performance in environment evaluation required more hard work, he said. The sub-standard quality of the atmosphere was the result of excessive sulfur dioxide, while the water environment also had to be improved, Zhang said. The city would push forward a campaign for blue skies and clear water this year, he said.

    The sewerage system will be improved with more sewage treatment plants to be built with more than 70 percent of the daily sewage in the 10 districts to be treated. Protection of water sources will be enhanced.

    Polluting enterprises will be moved, rebuilt or closed, with pollution control to cover factories, construction sites and public open spaces.

    Natural gas will be introduced to Guangzhou in the second half of 2006, and all liquefied petroleum gas users will change to natural gas by 2010.

    This year, the city will also promote the use of low-sulfur fuels including gasoline containing less than 0.05 percent of sulfur and lead-free diesel oil containing less than 0.05 percent of sulfur.

    A compensation program will be worked out by the end of the year for owners of cars being registered ahead of time.

(Source: Shenzhen Daily)