A homeowner on the site of the city's new metro line has forced the builder to find a more expensive digging method to avoid damaging her house, rather than compensate her to move.

Lu Xiuhua's two-story house - 170 sq m large with a grocery store her family runs on the first floor and living quarters on the second - is located on the site of the new Guangzhou Metro (GZMTR) Line 5.

The first phase of the project, covering 31 km and costing 15.3 billion yuan ($2 billion), was planned for completion next year and opened to the public in 2009, reported the Southern Metropolis Daily on Wednesday.

Most of the construction of the first phase is approaching completion, said the paper.

However, one small section located in the Huangpu district is holding back the project - the area where Lu's house sits.

In July, authorities offered to compensate Lu is she moved to make way for the metro.

But Lu said the offer of 2,500 yuan per square meter for the second floor and 2,800 yuan per square meter for the first floor was too low and moving away would ruin the family's only source of income.

She wanted the government to find jobs for her five children, preserve the grocery store and pay the family at least 5 million yuan in compensation.

The family, however, could not reach an agreement with the Huangpu district construction bureau, which said their requests unrealistic.

Construction of the affected section was suspended for a year. Faced with the approaching deadline, the GZMTR decided to avoid ruining Lu's home.

"We have started using a new method called shallow-burying and subsurface excavation to dig the subway tunnel," Zhu Weibin, deputy general manager of GZMTR, said.

"Using the new method to avoid further disputes shows the human-oriented spirit of the metro company," Zhou Linbin, vice-dean with the Law School of Sun Yat-sen University, said. "But the public will suffer because of the delay."

Zhou said in the future, the metro company should submit any disputes to the city's bureau of land resources and housing management for arbitration.

Meanwhile, Lu is also showing signs of fatigue from the stand-off.

"I think I have lost the 'war'. I do not hold any hopes of the government finding jobs for my children, or that I will get compensated with millions of yuan anymore," Lu told the Southern Metropolis Daily.

"I just hope the construction finishes as soon as possible, and my grocery store can resume its business."

(China Daily November 30, 2007)