A northern China highway virtually became a parking lot when around 10,000 trucks got stuck in a 120 km jam.

An official with Jining traffic police in Inner Mongolia revealed that trucks loaded high with coal from Inner Mongolia were inching forward bumper-to-bumper on the Beijing-Tibet highway, China Daily reported.

Ever since maintenance work began on a parallel route earlier this summer, the stretch of road connecting the coal-rich city of Erdos to Jining in Inner Mongolia has been plagued with traffic jams.

According to the Beijing News, poor road design and insufficient traffic management is to be blamed for the latest snarl-up, which has lasted for more than 20 days off and on.

An insider from Beijing Traffic Management Bureau explained that four highways, Beijing-Tibet highway, National Highway 110, Xiguan road and Beijing-Xinjiang highway, converge into the last one creating huge transportation pressure and congestion.

Reports on CCTV say the jams have already affected the incomes of truck drivers who have been trapped on the highway, and they can neither eat nor sleep well being stranded on the roads for days.

The first long jam, which started on August 14, lasted nine days and trapped thousands of vehicles in a gridlock that extended for more than 100 km.

Professor Ou Guoli of the School of Economics and Management at Beijing Jiaotong University said there is no short-term solution for the traffic jam.

Ou said in order to solve the problem permanently the country's industrial structure and transportation structure should be adjusted.

As for the transportation structure, Ou pointed out that railway is the first choice for transporting raw materials such as coal. (ANI)