BEIJING, March 26 (Xinhua) -- China's transport industry was dragged in the first two months of this year as the coronavirus epidemic disrupted the country's economic activities, official data showed Thursday.

Fixed-asset investment (FAI) in the sector plummeted by 34 percent year on year to stand at 170.9 billion yuan (about 24.01 billion U.S. dollars) in January and February, data from the Ministry of Transport showed.

In breakdown, total FAI in highways and waterways reached 117 billion yuan during the January-February period, accounting for around 6.5 percent of the annual target.

Investment in highway construction and inland waterways stood at 107.1 billion yuan and 3.5 billion yuan, respectively. Meanwhile, the FAI in coastal construction reached 4.9 billion yuan, the data showed.

Commercial passenger traffic registered a total of 1.4 billion trips during the two months, barely half of the amount logged in the same period of 2019.

It is estimated that cargo volume fell 19.7 percent to 4.51 billion tonnes, and the total cargo throughput of the country's ports dropped 6 percent to 1.87 billion tonnes, according to the ministry.

The Chinese government has unveiled a slew of measures, including targeted reserve requirement ratio cuts, offering special reloans as well as tax and fee cuts to cushion the impact on the economy. Enditem

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