Greater efforts urged to combat snow

Source: CCTV.com | 02-02-2008 13:16

China's State Council has held a meeting focusing on the country's snowstorm relief operations. Premier Wen Jiabao presided over Friday's meeting.

China is urging all citizens to continue efforts to ensure economic and social stability as the country struggles with the severe winter weather.

The State Council considered the facts and discussed solutions.

Snow and sleet are expected to continue plaguing most parts of southern China for the next few days.

The most difficult period is not over yet and the situation remains grim.

The State Council has called on various departments to persevere in their efforts to ensure economic and social stability so that citizens can enjoy a peaceful Spring Festival.

Top priorities are to keep road traffic moving, to ensure the power supply and to make sure people's lives go back to normal.

The State Council has established emergency headquarters to coordinate disaster relief operations as well as transportation and supplies of coal, electricity and oil.

And the emergency headquarters has released the latest developments regarding the adverse weather as of Friday evening.

On the Beijing-Zhuhai highway, the number of stranded vehicles at the section between Hubei and Guangdong fell to about six thousand half of the number on Thursday.

And the number of stranded passengers has decreased to about 16,000 down 70 percent from Thursday.

Road traffic condition in parts of Jiangsu, Jiangxi, Anhui and Guangxi deteriorated but the situation on some state highways improved.

On the southern portion of the Beijing-Guangzhou rail line the situation is almost back to normal.

Starting from Friday and during the following ten days railway authorities will focus on transporting coal used for generating electricity power.

More than half of the 5,700 lines of the South Grid that were disrupted by the severe winter weather have been repaired and have now resumed operation.

As of Friday evening the number of stranded residents has decreased because highways between Hubei and Guangxi have resumed normal operations.

The number of residents who needed to be reallocated was 250,000 fewer than Thursday.

The Civil Affairs Ministry has distributed about 550,000 quilts to the stricken areas.

Editor:Zhang Ning