Various ministries Monday ordered the construction of extravagant urban roads and squares to stop.

It is the continuation of a central government push to prevent the nationwide seizure of farming land during the process of urbanization.

"During the construction of (road and square) projects, other infrastructure is often demolished illegally and those workers undertaking the construction often do not get paid on time," the ministerial departments of construction, finance, land resources and economic development said Monday in a joint circular.

According to the circular, any road construction wider than 80 meters and square projects larger than 2 hectares have to stop immediately, no matter if they are waiting for approval or actually being built.

A nationwide audit should be conducted on wide roads and square projects to ensure there is proper planning and workers are being paid as soon as possible.

The departments also capped the width of roads and the size of squares.

Cities that are home to more than 2 million people will be able to construct a public square of 5 hectares at most. The sizes for small, medium and big cities are 1, 2 and 3 hectares, respectively.

The majority of China's 660 cities and 2,200 county-level towns have or are planning to build wide roads and lavish squares.

One typical case occurred in Rongcheng, a county-level city in East China's Shandong Province, which has a huge square covering 10 hectares.

"Ostentatious practices have often been seen in China's urban planning," said James Jao, the former city planning commissioner of New York who is now helping plan many Chinese cities.

He says there is a reoccurring conflict with Chinese planning. Local administrators push for huge roads or squares to create a legacy of their leadership, but they are pressed by their superiors who have control over tight budgets.

"My role is to get in between them," Jao said. "I suggest reasonable planning in line with local social and economic development."

With China's rapid economic development, various economic development zones, real estate projects and urban projects are blossoming nationwide.

Under the current land management system, local governments buy land from farmers or urban residents at very low prices. But some local governments then sell the land to real estate developers at much higher prices.

A nationwide inspection launched by the Ministry of Land Resources, which ended in October after about 12 months, discovered about 168,000 cases of illegal land requisition.

At the end of the survey, Tian Fengshan, who was then the land resources minister, was dismissed and detained by police because of his involvement in illegal land requisitions. He is yet to be sentenced.

The ministry has taken back the land being used for more than 2,600 illegal economic development zones this year, the majority of which was vacant.

(China Daily February 24, 2004)