Businessmen spend 20m yuan on unused school buses

Well-meaning businessmen from Anhui Province purchased 52 school buses for a total of 20 million yuan (US$3.26 million) and later found the buses have never been used. [Photo/news.xinhuanet.com]

Well-meaning businessmen from Anhui Province purchased 52 school buses for a total of 20 million yuan (US$3.26 million) and later found the buses have never been used, Xinhua news agency reported.

The Anhui Chamber of Commerce in Taizhou, Zhejiang Province, had planned to offer free shuttle services to schools in the city.

But the city's education authority found nine of the 14 schools already had buses and the other five said they didn't need them, the report said.

The unused buses were then parked on vacant land in Zhishengzhuang Village, where they have remained for nine months. The report said some people have since used the buses as "free toilets."

Zheng Yunlong, director of the Zhishengzhuang villagers' committee, said the land where they are parked will soon become a construction site.

If no one moves them within two months, they will find a new place to park the buses, he said.