Shanghai authorities will not issue any more taxi permits, keeping the number at the current 45,000 to avoid exacerbating the city's traffic jams, local media reported.
'Shanghai will continue to strictly control the number of taxis and will not increase them,' Shanghai Communist Party Secretary and Mayor Chen Liangyu was quoted by the Wen Hui Daily as saying.
The city's taxi companies said the limits would help business, but some residents said the move would make it harder to find transport in bad weather or during major holidays.
Shanghai - a city of 13 million people - has six major taxi companies carrying 2.5 million passengers a day.
A spokesman for Qiangsheng Taxi Company said: 'If too many taxis come into the market, it will be difficult for drivers to earn a living and for companies to manage.'
He estimated the income of taxi drivers had fallen to an average of about 2,000 yuan (HK$1,880) a month, about half what they would earn in the 1990s.
