The Shanghai-Hangzhou high-speed magnetic levitation railway may list shares as well as seek private and foreign investment to raise funds for its construction, the Shanghai Securities News reported Friday, citing a government official.

Zhou Yupeng, vice mayor of Shanghai, said the project's budget is estimated at 35 billion yuan (US$4.37 billion). "We are considering seeking funds in many ways," the report quoted him as saying.

Zhou added he didn't know when the construction work would start, but the railway is expected to go into operation before 2010, when Shanghai hosts the World Expo, said the report.

The National Development and Reform Commission said mid-March the State Council had approved the Shanghai-Hangzhou railway project.

The normal speed of the magnetic levitation railway will be 450 kilometers per hour, but it will be limited to less than 200 kilometers per hour in downtown areas. It will take passengers only half an hour to travel the 175 kilometers from Shanghai to Hangzhou.

Xinhua quoted a member of the National People's Congress as saying the project would use German technology that levitates a train above a magnetized track, known as maglev.

The line would be the second in the country after one built by Transrapid, which groups ThyssenKrupp, Siemens AG and the German Government, that runs from Shanghai's international airport to the outskirts of its financial district.

(Shenzhen Daily April 10, 2006)