The Seoul Metropolitan Government will partially normalize late-night intra-city bus operations that were reduced by 20 percent last November in line with Level Two social distancing regulations.

According to Seoul City on Friday, some of the buses that stopped operating after 10:00 p.m. on weekdays will return to normal starting Monday.

Seventy-one out of 356 bus lines will restart normal operations first, after it was found that the level of congestion inside the buses exceeded 80 percent after 10:00 p.m. at least three days in a week.

Officials said the congestion levels began to rise after some business operation restrictions were eased last month.

The average level of congestion between 10:00 and 11:00 p.m. was 23-point-four percent under Level Two-point-Five, and rose to 36-point-five percent under Level Two.