A total of 500 buses from routes Extra-1, 808, 718 and 728 will go back onto Beijing's streets today after being sterilized and disinfected for the first time.

"The buses were cleaned with water using special high-pressure instruments and then came the disinfection," said Shao Xuchu, chairman of the board of directors at the Beijing Xuchu Dadi Technology Development Co Ltd, the unit responsible for the disinfection project.

All of the facilities inside the buses, including the doors, windows and seats, were steamed clean with the vapour of a special kind of disinfectant heated to 140 C. Then, the buses were disinfected for 20 minutes using ultraviolet radiation, said Shao.

In the past, the buses were cleaned using only brooms and cloths for the windows and doors.

All of the company's 3,800 buses will have been disinfected by the end of this month, according to sources from the Beijing Bus Company Ltd, a listed company on the Shanghai Stock Exchange.

This measure, a move to guarantee passengers' health, will effectively improve the sanitary conditions on Beijing's buses and safeguard passengers from infectious diseases, especially flu, enteropathy and epidemic conjunctivitis, according to Zhang Guoguang, manager of Beijing Bus Stock Co Ltd.

"Since tickets on our company's buses are higher than on ordinary ones, we should provide a service of a higher quality," said Zhang.

The company has vowed to sterilize its buses every month regularly.

In recent years, Beijing's public transportation industry has stepped up its efforts to improve its service standards while keeping comparatively low prices.

It is reported that only several countries including Japan, Sweden and Norway conduct measures on public transportation facilities to counteract infectious illnesses.