Beidou navigation enforced in 9 provinces

China's transport ministry requires 80 percent of all coaches, chartered tourist buses and dangerous goods vehicles in nine provinces, autonomous regions and municipalities to install the Beidou navigation system by the end of March, Xinhua news agency reported Monday.

As the first project for the civil use of the Beidou satellite system, 80,000 navigation receivers will be installed on vehicles in nine pilot provinces, autonomous regions and municipalities with seven application systems and a supporting platform within two years, said Feng Zhenglin, vice transport minister.

Vehicles not installed with the Beidou navigation system as required will not have their transportation licenses granted or renewed after June 1.

The nine provinces and municipalities are Jiangsu, Anhui, Shandong in East China, Hebei and Tianjin in North China, Shaanxi and Ningxia Hui Autonomous region in Northwest China as well as Hunan in Central China and Guizhou in Southwest China.

China is in the process of establishing the Beidou satellite navigation and positioning system, which now has a constellation of 16 navigation satellites and four experimental satellites.

The Beidou navigation system began providing services for civilians in the Asia-Pacific region on December 27, 2012.

Under the overall system development plan, the Beidou system will cover the entire world by 2020. Though there is no plan to launch Beidou satellites next year, China will launch about 40 Beidou satellites from 2014 onwards, Xinhuanet.com reported quoting Cao Hongjie, vice-president of Beijing UniStrong Science and Technology, which makes navigational products.