Shanghai will start to build the city's third ring road this year,Shanghai Morning News reports.

The 75km ring road,called the Middle Ring-Rong,is to be built between the Inner Ring-Road and the Outer Ring-Road to help relieve the ever-increasing traffic burden on the two ring roads.

The cost of the road has not been declared.

The project will be carried out in stages,according to road designers from the municipal Construction Engineering Research Institute.

The first phase of construction,including the northern section,mainly elevated highways,and the western section on the ground,will commence this year and be complete by 2005.The southern and eastern sections in Pudong will be built at a later unspecified date.

The new road will be wider than the two existing ring roads and will be able to take more traffic.The sections on the ground will have eight lanes and the elevated roads will have eight lanes and four sub-lanes.

The throughway will have no traffic lights.

( eastday.com July 4, 2002)