Final decision will be made on 30b yuan line between Shanghai and Hangzhou
Beijing will conclude an assessment of the controversial maglev link proposal between Shanghai and Hangzhou by Monday and decide whether to approve the project.
Official news portal eastday.com denied reports that the project had already obtained the green light, quoting a spokesman from the Communications Bureau of Shanghai.
It was responding to a report in yesterday's Hangzhou Daily which said state planning authorities had given final approval for the project. The Hangzhou Daily report cited a city government source.
If approved, the 30 billion yuan project would be funded by the central government, Zhejiang province and the city of Shanghai. Construction would start this year and was estimated to be completed by 2009, according to the Hangzhou Daily report.
The provincial and municipal authorities of Zhejiang, Hangzhou and Shanghai have been mulling the idea of building a high-speed railway for a long time. They want better connections between Yangtze River Delta cities in Jiangsu and Zhejiang provinces.
A maglev link between Shanghai and Hangzhou would reduce the current two-hour trip by train to 26 minutes - 14 minutes faster than a conventional high-speed rail would be.