BEIJING — China will roll out a raft of measures to ensure smooth road transport and accelerate work resumption, according to the Ministry of Transport.

Liu Xiaoming, vice-minister of transport, told a press conference on March 6 that the country's road traffic has recovered rapidly spurred by the decision to scrap all tolls nationwide since Feb 17.

China's highway network saw the daily vehicle trips increase 6.2 percent year-on-year to 26.54 million on March 5, jumping from 5.42 million on Feb 16, said Liu.

The total reduction of toll is estimated to reach 1.5 billion yuan ($21.56 million) every day, he noted.

For toll-road operators encountering difficulty in repaying their financial debts as a result of the toll-free pass policy, financial institutions will be guided toward providing support to them through deferring interest payment and extending principal repayment, Liu noted.

Affected by the spreading of the virus, the total passenger volume of railway, road, waterway and aviation dropped by 79.9 percent year-on-year in February, with the freight volume down 26.5 percent.

Considering the contraction in passenger volume brought by the outbreak, transport authorities have encouraged relative enterprises to provisionally scrap franchise fees for taxi drivers to ensure steady income, said Liu.

Meanwhile, more coordinated steps will be taken to aid transport enterprises severely hit by the outbreak, especially micro, small and medium-sized firms, said Liu, adding that insurers are prodded to offer special credit support or issue loans at preferential rates for companies that have been forced out of service due to the epidemic.

Liu said China has arranged "point-to-point" direct transportation as part of the efforts to speed up work resumption. As of March 5, a total of 1.7 million migrant workers had returned to work via customized buses.

Workers returning to work through "point-to-point" direct transportation without symptoms do not have to undergo a 14-day quarantine, same as those drivers and loaders who deliver supplies to key epidemic areas in a short period of time, said Liu, citing a recent guideline on work resumption.