The long-disputed high-speed magnetic levitation train linking Shanghai and Hangzhou still needs to clear a final hurdle before construction planned for 2010 begins, the top economic planning body of Zhejiang Province has said.

The remarks by Zhejiang Development and Reform Commission were a slight change from a recent five-year construction plan issued by Zhejiang provincial government, which said work on the Maglev line would start in 2010 and be completed by 2014.

The project was suspended early last year amid wide concerns from residents that their health might be jeopardized by radiation from passing trains.

"The plan was what the government is trying to achieve," an unnamed official of the Zhejiang commission said in today's Shanghai Oriental Morning Post. The official added that the timing for the line was just "an aim."

The Central Government has already given the green light to the construction of the Maglev line from the Zhejiang provincial capital to Shanghai but it still needs approval on a construction feasibility report and preliminary design of the project, the official told the newspaper.

Despite uncertainty over when construction will start, the newspaper revealed that a traffic terminus now under construction at Hongzhou's Eastern Railway Station has already saved spaces to build platforms for the Maglev line.

Xinhua News Agency cited the Zhejiang government plan at the weekend saying the Maglev line is expected to be completed by 2014 with a total investment of 22 billion yuan (US$3.2 billion).

From 2008 to 2012, 6.5 billion of the investment should be allocated while the provincial office that supervises the project should finish preliminary work on site selection and environment evaluation this year, the plan said.

Total length of the Maglev line will be extended to 199.434 kilometers from the previous 175km, including a section that connects the two cities and a minor section that links Shanghai's two airports.

The major section is about 164.577km and the airport link covers 34.857km.

Zhejiang will have 103.553km of the Maglev line in its territory and stations in the cities of Jiaxing and Hangzhou, the plan said.

Shanghai will have three stations – Longyang Road Station, World Expo Station and Shanghai Southern Railway Station, the Oriental Morning Post said.

Approved by the Central Government in March 2006, trains on the Maglev track are expected to hit speeds of 450kmh. Speed will be limited within 200kmh in cities downtown areas. It was planned to go into operation by 2010 in time for Shanghai World Expo.

Shanghai operates the world's only commercial Maglev system on a 30km run between Longyang Station on Metro Line 2 and Pudong International Airport.

The planned Maglev route was to be separated from communities along the course by a greenbelt only 22.5 meters wide at both sides. A local government blueprint had earlier indicated a protection belt 150m wide would be built on either side.

The Shanghai Government has been under pressure since its announcement of the line early last year, with crowds of petitioners knocking at their doors every day. Thousands of complaints were also received online.

The Minhang District government alone received more than 5,000 petitioners in a single day in March last year.

The Central Government suspended the project on May 26 last year and the State Environmental Protection Administration pledged in last June it would "solicit opinions from all channels" to see whether the Maglev line would threaten the health of nearby residents.

(Shanghai Daily August 20,2008)