The man entrusted with building possibly the world's largest network of ring roads, around Beijing, has been handed over for criminal investigation involving bribery, Shenzhen Daily reported Tuesday.

Bi Yuxi, ex-head of the Capital Road Development Corporation and a deputy director of the Beijing Traffic Bureau, had been expelled from the Party and was under investigation for allegedly accepting huge bribes, the Beijing Youth Daily reported Monday.

Bi was head of the Capital Road Development Corporation between 1994 and 2003.

Meanwhile, some 713 cases, each involving 1 million yuan (US$ 120,000) or more, were investigated during the first half of this year, up 6.9 percent over the same period last year, Procurator-General of the Supreme People's Procuratorate Jia Chunwang was quoted by the China Daily as saying Monday.

(Agencies via Shenzhen Daily August 10, 2004)