BEIJING, May 26 (Xinhua) -- China has suspended the construction of a high-speed magnetic levitation train linking the eastern cities of Shanghai and Hangzhou after residents raised concerns their health may be affected by radiation from passing trains, officials and experts said on Saturday.
"The project has been suspended in line with the arrangements of the municipal government," said a spokesman with the government of Minhang District in Shanghai's southern suburbs.
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 (4.5 billion U.S. dollars) maglev train track was to be 175 km long and trains were expected to reach speeds of 450 km per hour.
Many thought the line would be operating by 2010, when Shanghai plays host to the World Expo.
The Shanghai-Hangzhou maglev line would have been the world's second commercial high-speed maglev track. Shanghai operates the world's only commercial maglev system on a 30-km run between Shanghai's financial district and its Pudong 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 resident in Xinzhuang township in Minhang. "We had been looking forward to this."
The 28-year-old expectant mother, began to petition in March, shortly 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 route by a greenbelt only 22.5 meters wide, although a blueprint at the local government 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 huge pressure over the past months, with crowds of petitioners knocking at their doors every day as 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 Shanghai's 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 and the southern route linking Jiaxiang and Hangzhou while following the Shanghai-Hangzhou expressway.
Minhang District in the southern suburbs of Shanghai was to have been a juncture of the two lines.
The project would have required a massive relocation of residents and possible radiation dangers for those close to the tracks.
Analysts said the petitioners had apparently succeeded in convincing the government to think twice about the project.
"The project is still under study and its final design is subject to approval," said Wang Qingyun, an official in charge of transportation at National Development and Reform Commission (NDRC).
"It's still hard to say whether the maglev would be built, but if it is it won't be possible to complete it before 2010," said Wang.
Local media reported earlier that all the relocation work was to be done before the end of this year. Over the past few months, however, much of the relocation work was halted and new real estate projects that had been suspended resumed.
"We were told to resume construction because the maglev project had been suspended," said a sales manager of Linshui Meidi Garden, a new housing development project in Minhang District.
Sources close to the Shanghai municipal government said officials were still weighing the pros and cons of the value of the project. "The original budget was 35 billion yuan, but experts said the final cost would likely top 40 billion."
While supporters of the project said the maglev trains would speed up urbanization and economic development in the Yangtze River Delta and help Hangzhou and Jiaxing cities in Zhejiang Province catch up with their wealthier neighbor Shanghai, those who are against the idea worried the costly project would not be able to pay for itself.
"The 150 yuan cost of a one-way ticket is obviously too high for ordinary people," said Prof. Li Hong, a researcher with the NDRC's transportation institute. The price, calculated at the proposed rate of 0.75 yuan per kilometer in the project's mid-term report, would equal 75 percent of the cost of an air ticket but more than three times the current train fare.
He said high fares are affecting the number of passengers using the existing maglev train to Shanghai's Pudong International Airport. "Its ticket revenue is only 100 million yuan a year which means it will take 100 years to pay for its construction costs," said Li.
An alternative solution to the abandoned meglev project could be a high-speed rail link. It would be almost as fast as the maglev train but cost only half as much. A trip from Shanghai to Hangzhou by high-speed train would take 35 minutes, only seven minutes longer than the maglev ride.
Ministry of Railways said the project was under study. "Details will be published at an appropriate time," said Huang Min, a planning official.
