17 punished for holes in highway

Seventeen people responsible for the construction of a substandard highway in Northwest China’s Gansu province have been punished by the local government.

Seven officials from the provincial department of transport that oversee the Tianshui-Dingxi Highway project and five people from an institute in charge of quality supervision received administrative punishment, Ai Yude, an official from the Gansu provincial department of transport, said on Tuesday. Five people from a construction company received economic punishment, including a fine of 1 million yuan ($157,000), he said.

A large number of holes in the surface of the highway, which cost more than 8.7 billion yuan to build, were found a month after it was completed in May 2011.

Issued by the Ministry of Education and another 19 departments responsible for school bus safety, the circular urged local governments to establish a school bus safety management system, set a reasonable transitional period and make detailed provisions in terms of school bus permissions, school bus drivers’ qualifications and legal responsibilities.

The focus of the management work should be put on rural areas where schooling is beyond the reach of public transport and nearby schooling is not feasible, said the circular.