Beidou satellite navigation sees increasing civil use

China's Beidou navigation satellite system is being more frequently applied in the country's civil projects, authorities said at an expo in northeast China on Monday.

In Shenyang, capital of Liaoning Province, there has been surging use of the system in environmental sanitation, logistics and school buses, with the mapping largely used to beef up management efficiency and road safety in the city, according to the local government.

It will take a bigger role in government administration, marine fishery and emergency rescues in the future, the government of Shenbei New District said.

The Beidou sat nav system is one of the four large sat nav systems in the world. Its service currently covers the Asia-Pacific region.

The system began to provide precision positioning, real-time navigation, location reporting, precise time reading and short message services for users in China and the Asia-Pacific in December 2012. The government is aiming to make it a global system with 35 geostationary orbit and non-geostationary orbit satellites by 2020.