The tunnel will connect Shanghai's new developed Pudong district and its Chongming Island, China's third largest.

The project is part of the blueprint of the bustling city's suburban Chongming to catch up with the downtown area.

Strategically located at the intersection of China's coastal economic zone and the Yangtze Delta zone, Chongming is expected to become the platform to activate regions north of the Yangtze Delta to join the economic engine.

Qidong, Haimen and Nantong cities of east China's Jiangsu Province north of the Yangtze, also expect to benefit from the tunnel and the whole Chongming development plan.

Both Haimen and Qidong have considered building bridges over the Yangtze to connect to Chongming Island, through which the two cities hope to link with the prosperous Shanghai.

Wang Dongrong, an economist with the Shanghai municipal government, said the transportation network will boost Shanghai's northern expansion of its economic influence.

Currently, Shanghai leads regions west and south of it as the heart of the Yangtze Delta economic zone.

Covering 1,200 square kilometers, Chongming Island boasts well preserved ecological resources. Gong Deqing, secretary of the island county's committee of the Communist Party of China (CPC), said Chongming will be positioned to develop ecological industries rather than to become a base for workshops.

Further plans to develop the island will be decided by the Shanghai municipal government and the central government, said Gong.

(Xinhua News Agency March 31, 2003)