China has suspended the construction of the high-speed magnetic levitation train linking Shanghai and Hangzhou. The decision was reached after residents raised concerns that their health may be affected by radiation from passing trains, according to officials and experts. 

 

China has suspended the construction of the high-speed magnetic levitation train linking Shanghai and Hangzhou.

 

The decision was reached after residents raised concerns that their health may be affected by radiation from passing trains, according to officials and experts.

 

"The project has been suspended in line with the arrangements of the municipal government," said a spokesman with the Minhang District government in Shanghai.

 

An official with the Shanghai Municipal People's Congress confirmed a major reason for suspending the project was the magnetic radiation concerns raised by residents living along the proposed route.

 

"The government is working on the issue," said the official on condition of anonymity.

 

Approved by the central government in March 2006, the 35-billion-yuan (US$4.5 billion) Maglev track was to be 175 kilometers long and trains were expected to hit speeds of 450kmh. Many believed the line would be operating by 2010 in time for the Shanghai World Expo.

 

Shanghai operates the world's only commercial Maglev system on a 30-kilometer run between the city's financial district and Pudong International Airport.

 

"The petition office told us early this month that construction and all the plans to relocate residents (along the route) had been suspended," said a pregnant woman in Minhang's Xinzhuang township. "We had been looking forward to this."

 

The woman, 28, began to petition in March soon after she learned the Maglev route was to run through her community. "I was worried the radiation could harm my baby."

 

The planned Maglev route was to be separated from communities along the course by a greenbelt only 22.5 meters wide. A local government blueprint had earlier indicated a protection belt 150 meters wide would be built on either side. German specifications require a 300-meter leeway on both sides of the track.

 

 

The local government has been under pressure in recent months, with crowds of petitioners knocking at their doors every day. Thousands of complaints were received online.

 

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

 

According to the designers' blueprint, the new Maglev route would have run southwest from the existing Maglev station in the financial center. It was to then pass the Shanghai World Expo venue and cross the Huangpu River to the Shanghai Southern Railway Station.

 

From there, a double track was to be built with the northern route leading to the Hongqiao International Airport, with the southern route linking Jiaxiang and Hangzhou in Zhejiang Province while following the Shanghai-Hangzhou expressway.

 

Minhang District was to have been a juncture of the two lines.

 

The project would have required a massive relocation of residents.

 

"The project is still under study and its final design is subject to approval," said Wang Qingyun, an official in charge of transportation at the National Development and Reform Commission.

 

"It's still hard to say whether the Maglev will be built, but if it is it won't be possible to complete it before 2010."

 

(Xinhua News Agency May 28, 2007)