DRIVERS of cars that don’t have Shanghai car plates face being banned from the city’s most gridlocked areas after next month, officials with the city traffic watchdog said yesterday.

This is the extension of a scheme that currently sees cars with non-local plates banned from expressways during the morning (7:30am-9:30am) and evening (4:30pm-6:30pm) rush-hour periods.

The Shanghai Transport Commission did not announce which roads will be affected by the new ban, nor when it will apply.