Overhead wires in several downtown Shanghai districts, including the Xintiandi area, will be moved underground this year, city officials said yesterday.

"We will have a lot of work to do this year," said Zhou Jun, an official with the Shanghai Engineering Administrative Bureau who is in charge of the project.

The budget for the project is still being finalized but planning is complete for several key zones, including Xintiandi.

The bureau, the Luwan district government, the city's power management authority and the Hong Kong-based Shui On Group are working together on a construction plan to minimize inconveniences to business and traffic while the work is completed.

One of the key tasks is to find sites for underground transformer substations so power poles can be removed, officials said.

Overhead cables are also expected to disappear near the Northern Bund in Hongkou District and near Wuyi Road and the Yan'an Elevated Road.

The government plans to relocate about 6,000 kilometers of wires, mostly telephone and power cables, over the next two years.

Last year, the city removed 1,041 kilometers of overhead wires, mainly telephone lines, plus 1,041 power poles near Shanghai Railway Station and Nanjing Road W.

Officials said the main purpose of the wire relocation project is to polish the city's image and to better manage the infrastructure system.

However, city officials are still deciding whether to remove the power lines serving trolley buses.

Shanghai has almost 60,000 kilometers of overhead wires - about 1.5 times the Earth's equator.

Since 2001, the city government has removed 7,000 kilometers of overhead wires along 100 downtown streets, including Sichuan Road, Xietu Road, Nanjing Road and Huaihai Road. Most of the key overhead wires will be relocated before the World Expo in 2010.

(Shanghai Daily January 17, 2008)