CHINA / National |
China environment agency reviewing maglev project(Reuters)Updated: 2007-06-20 20:05 SHANGHAI - China's environmental protection authorities are evaluating Shanghai's planned magnetic levitation train line to the resort city of Hangzhou, which will use German technology, Shanghai's executive vice mayor said on Wednesday. "The State Environmental Protection Administration is now reviewing the maglev project," Feng Guoqin told Reuters on the sidelines of a CIES business forum. He added that he believed the project would comply with China's environmental standards. Shanghai already operates the world's only commercial maglev system on a 30-km line linking its financial district to Pudong international airport using Siemens AG's technology. "The (Shanghai-Hangzhou) project will use the same German technology as the existing line," Feng said. Xinhua news agency said in May that the 35 billion yuan ($4.5 billion) project had been shelved in part due to petitions by thousands of residents along the proposed route fearing the high-speed trains would produce radiation. A Shanghai government spokeswoman denied the report four days later, saying that she was unaware of any suspension of the project and that the Shanghai leg of the proposed maglev route was still being debated and opinions were being collected from experts and residents. Approved by the central government in March 2006, the maglev plan called for 175 km (100 miles) of line and trains running at speeds up to 450 km per hour. The route was intended to be up and running by 2010, when Shanghai will host the World Expo. |
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