Shanghai will put 50 additional kilometers of rail track into operation by 2007 to relieve traffic pressure under plans drawn up by the municipality.

There will be 400 extra kilometres of rail track by 2010.

In the long term, the city will build 800 kilometres of track to link the city centre more closely with the 10 satellite towns it is promoting in its suburbs.

Nine lines are currently being built in the city. They include the M4 - the second phase of Pearl Line 1. A recent cave-in at an M4 building site sparked great concern from the local and central governments.

Qian Shaohua, senior engineer and director of the Shanghai Urban Planning and Design Research Institute's Road and Transportation Planning Institute, said: "The cause of the accident is still being investigated but it might be a technical problem."

The central government has attached great significance to the case and is determined to make sure that those responsible for the accident will be punished, Qian said.

The municipal government has become very cautious about the ongoing rail projects and the lines being planned.

There will be a trial run next month of the extension of Metro Line 1, which runs from Xinzhuang Station to the Minhang Development Zone in southwest Shanghai's Minhang District.

The city will focus on building tracks for faster trains with larger capacities. The municipal government's plan aims to have the trains used by 30 per cent of those travelling in the city, who currently number around 25 million daily. It also aims to develop the municipality's rural areas and spread the city centre population towards the suburbs.

Shanghai has invested a lot of money in building large-scale metro lines into the past decade.

The Shanghai Municipal Construction Management Commission is working with the planning and design research institute on how to best plan and use the city's underground space.

It will take one-and-a-half years for them to complete their report on safety and other factors, according to an official from the commission's planning division who refused to be named.

But he said this delay will not affect the city's schedule for the construction of rail lines.

To improve efficiency and guarantee the quality of each of these lines, Shanghai has broken up the monopoly in this sector into several bodies, covering finance, construction, operations and supervision.

(China Daily July 21, 2003)