The government is working on a compensation scheme for car owners during the Games when private cars will be restricted to driving every other day, newspapers and television reports said, citing remarks by Vice Mayor Ji Lin.
Ji acknowledged that the city was tightening controls on the swarms of rural migrants in China's capital by stepping up inspections of the permits residents are supposed to have.
But "during the Beijing Olympics we will absolutely not restrict outsiders from entering the capital," Ji was quoted as saying at a legislative meeting Friday.
The measures, Ji said, are intended to help Beijing clear away air pollution and traffic congestion
- among the thorniest logistical problems Beijing confronts in hosting the games.
Beijing ranks among China's most polluted cities and is regularly shrouded in a brown smog made worse by swelling ranks of private cars and a metropolitan area population that has soared to 17 million. With only five months before the August 8 opening, Beijing is under pressure from athletes and the International Olympic Committee to drastically improve air quality.
At the same time, Beijing's efforts to soften the Olympic restrictions show how carefully the authoritarian communist government must tread as people grow wealthier and more aware of their rights.
Private cars account for an increasing share of Beijing's 3.3 million vehicles, most of them bought in the past five years by a rapidly rising middle class.
