The Zhejiang government is considering the construction of a second Hangzhou Bay bridge for rail transport in a bid to forge closer ties between its industrial sector and the economic development of Shanghai.
The proposed bridge would provide a rail link between the northern Ningbo district of the eastern coastal province and Shanghai, at an estimated cost of some 30 billion yuan (HK$34.37 billion) according to Zhou Jiangyong, who is the chairman of the Ningbo Hangzhou Bay New Zone Administration.
The provincial government and the Ministry of Railways were studying the feasibility of the project and it would likely be written into the nation's 12th Five Year Plan (2011-2015) for economic and social development, Zhou told reporters.
'Zhejiang is making an all-out effort to make its industrial sectors more competitive,' he said. 'The key lies in whether we can better integrate our privately-owned businesses into the locomotive of Shanghai.'
The 36-kilometre Hangzhou Bay Bridge, the world's longest sea bridge, opened in May 2008 after nearly five years of construction. It helped cut 120 kilometres and two hours from the formerly four-hour Shanghai to Ningbo journey.
The 11.8 billion yuan bridge links Cixi city near Ningbo with Jiaxing on the border with Shanghai. The length of the second bridge would be the same as the Hangzhou Bay Bridge, but would cost more than twice as much.
The plan to build the second bridge is in line with the State Council's recently-endorsed ambition to transform the Yangtze River Delta encompassing Shanghai, Jiangsu and Zhejiang into one of the most affluent regions in Asia Pacific. Zhejiang has been one of the biggest economic beneficiaries of the mainland's opening-up policy in the past three decades.