Taiwan -- Transport authorities yesterday announced a tentative plan to ease highway traffic during the upcoming four-day Mid-Autumn Festival holiday.

The Taiwan Area National Expressway Bureau said according to its preliminary plan, the highways will stop collecting tolls from midnight to 6 a.m. on Sept. 22 and 25, the first day and the last of the holiday, to encourage motorists to drive during off-peak hours.

The bureau said it expects traffic to peak on the afternoons of Sept. 22 and 25, with the total volume for each of the two days reaching 2.4 million cars.

It estimated the traffic volume for the upcoming holiday to exceed that during the Dragon Boat Festival earlier this year.

The bureau may also impose ramp control from 7 a.m. to 7 p.m. daily between Sept. 22 and 25, during which the shoulders of some sections on the highways may be open to traffic.

The shoulders to be open may be the Taoyuan-Chungli section on the Sun Yat-sen Freeway for both south-bound and north-bound traffic, and the Tahsi-Lungtan section on the Second Northern Freeway for south-bound traffic, the bureau said.