In a bold initiative, Shanghai is planning to relocate residents living near Pudong International Airport to ease the problem of noise pollution impacting on the public.

The decision was disclosed after five government departments and the Shanghai Airport Authority replied to a Shanghai People's Congress deputy about his proposal of easing the fallout from airport noise.

The Pudong airport opened in 1999 and now handles about 60 percent of the city's flights. Daily flight volume at Pudong reached about 700 last year, according to the Pudong New Area government.

"The increasingly busy air traffic has brought precious development opportunities but has also proved a big environmental-pollution headache for the surrounding areas," said Pei Zhen, the SPC deputy.

Pei, a Pudong government official, teamed up with other local law makers to carry out spot investigations at Pudong's Chuansha and Zhuqiao towns, before submitting the proposal to the annual meeting of the city's top legislative body in January.

The investigation suggested that thousands of residents and more than 144 enterprises were suffering negative effects from airport noise every day. Some people were unable to work, study and sleep and many of them were in poor health.

Household appliances and telecommunications devices were also affected by passing planes, Pei wrote in his proposal.

Pei cited the examples of television pictures continually turning fuzzy and cell phones often cutting out suddenly.

Yu Yong, another law maker and the Chuansha Town governor, said that the government had already held coordination meetings over the noise problems. The Shanghai Environmental Protection Bureau has urged the airport authority to install sound-proof doors and windows in some affected towns and villages.

"We insist that the government take measures to root out the problem completely," Pei said, stressing that the relocation of citizens should be carried out "step by step."

(Shanghai Daily July 14, 2008)