Shanghai will have a second terminal at Pudong International Airport by the end of 2007, which airport officials say will add another 40 million passengers a year to the passenger-handling capacity.

Various government bodies have set up a task force to oversee the project. It will soon start collecting design schemes from domestic and foreign architecture firms.

"The task force will try to complete the selection of design schemes by the end of the first quarter of next year," said Yi Jiwu, a spokesman for Shanghai Airport Authority.

The date for construction to start hasn't been decided because bidder which wins the right to draft-design the terminal will need some time to present more detailed and practical designs, Yi said.

So far, more than 20 airport planning companies or architecture firms have shown interests in bidding for the project. They are mostly from the US, Germany, France, England, Canada and Singapore.

The only terminal building at 4-year-old Pudong International Airport - an ultramodern facility compared with most airports in the world - was designed to handle about 20 million travelers a year.

Last year, the city's two airports saw a combined passenger volume of 24.68 million - 11 million at Pudong and 13.68 million at the older Hongqiao Airport, a year-on-year rise of nearly 20 percent.

"As air travelers flying in and out of Shanghai are increasing rapidly these years, we may revise our plan for the second terminal building to make it capable of receiving more than the current aim of 40 million people," said an airport authority official.

The city plans to build the Pudong airport into the major gateway for air travelers in and out of China by 2005 and turn it into the aviation hub for the Asia Pacific region by 2015.

City officials said earlier that the Pudong Airport will eventually have four terminal buildings and four runways, hopefully before the 2010 World Expo to be held in Shanghai.

Meanwhile, China Eastern Airlines said that starting next Wednesday, it will use its two special counters at the Pudong terminal to handle processing international transferring passengers.

"The move is aimed at eliminating problems for international travelers who transfer in Shanghai," said Wu Jiuhong, deputy managing director of China Eastern.

Currently, these passengers must take their luggage out of the building and re-enter it again to go through procedures like customs clearance and security check.

Also, there is more good news for passengers or freight owners starting from the weeklong National Day holiday, which begins on Wednesday.

The airport authority will add three more security check passageways to the current nine and each passage will be widened to 3.5 meters from the current 3.2 meters.

Meanwhile, freight owners will also be able to handle their freight customs clearance on any day of a week, starting on Wednesday.

(eastday.com September 29, 2003)