Shenzhen's rush to complete five Metro lines before it hosts the world university games in August has been dogged by derailment, flood, fire and death.
A total of 155 kilometres of Metro line are scheduled to be finished by June, ready to showcase Shenzhen's efficiency and embrace the 2011 Universiade, to give the games their formal title. To meet the deadline, Shenzhen invested about 20 billion yuan (HK$23.88 billion) in metro construction last year, including 12.6 billion yuan from the city government.
Shenzhen once boasted that hosting the games would gain it world attention, like Beijing's Olympics, the World Expo in Shanghai, or at the very least Guangzhou's successful hosting of the Asian Games.
But frequent accidents on the Metro expansion project have hurt the city's image and left many residents worried.
An official document that began circulating on the internet this month said a train left the rails during a test on the Longhua section of Metro Line 4 last month. In the document, the city's Railway Transportation Construction Office criticised the operator of Metro Line 4, Hong Kong's MTR Corp, for a lack of strict safety management, which led to the derailment.
The document said there had also been a fire at Shangmeilin Station since the start of decorating and tests on Line 4.
The operator confirmed the accident, saying it was caused by a 'non-standard operation' by contractors and had nothing to do with the train and the signal system. It insisted the derailment had no impact on the rest of construction.