A regulation to be adopted next year by the subway operator in Nanjing, capital of Jiangsu Province, will drop a controversial ban on eating food in the subway after soliciting public opinions.
Song Guoqiang, the general manager of Nanjing's Metro Operation Company, said the food ban has no basis, the Shanghai-based Oriental Morning Post reported yesterday.
"However we hope passengers will not eat or drink in subway trains to prevent spilling and stains on the trains," Song said.
The draft regulation unveiled last month warned that passengers who eat or drink in the subway will be fined from 20 to 100 yuan (US$2.90 to US$14.60).
A company official said earlier that sanitation workers collected about 3 tons of waste every day from the city's subway trains.
But Metro officials admitted it would be hard to implement the food ban and that they had to listen to public opinions.
The new regulation also bans the Metro pets, balloons, beggars, entertainers and passengers who are stripped to the waist or barefoot.
Authorities said they will give verbal warnings rather than fining passengers in the first three months.