The capital will officially implement time adjustment policies starting February 1, 2012 in 10 urban districts and two suburban districts, according to a recent decision issued by the Hanoi People's Committee.

Officials and staff of central Government agencies, Hanoi offices and authorities at the local level will start their work day at 8am and end at 5pm.

Accordingly, high school, university, college and vocational school students will start their school days before 7am for the morning shift and end after 7pm for the afternoon shift.

Kindergarten, elementary and middle school students will start an hour later at 8am and end at 5pm. These schools will have to allocate teachers and staff to start receiving students at 7:30am and have to take care of students until 5:30pm.

Staff working at shopping centres and in the services sector (except for banking and finance) will open at 9am and close after 7pm.

In an effort to curb traffic congestion, the Ministry of Transport submitted the plan to change work and school times in Hanoi this past October and the capital submitted its plan to the Government in November.

According to latest statistics from the Hanoi 's Transport Department, there are roughly 380,000 cars and 3.7 million motorbikes in the city. In addition, 50,000 vehicles registered outside the city still participate in the traffic here on a daily basis./.