Plans by Shanghai to construct the world's highest Ferris wheel, standing at 200 meters, have been shelved, government officials said Thursday.

Shanghai officials and experts cancelled the plan after discussions and decided to build a 100-meter tall skyscraper on the land earmarked for the Ferris wheel, officials said.

The Ferris project envisaged a wheel with a diameter of 170 meters, supported by two 200-meter-long pylons, with a commercial plaza at its base. The wheel would have had 36 cabins capable of accommodating 1,100 people at a time.

The cost of the project was estimated at between 600 million yuan (US$77million) and 800 million yuan (US$103 million).

Currently the world's highest Ferris wheel is the London Eye in Britain. It was completed in 1999 and is 135 meters tall. 

However, the record is being challenged by a 160-meter-tall Ferris wheel in Nanchang, capital of east China's Jiangxi Province, which started to receive visitors last May. The developer has said application procedures for an entry in the Guiness Book of Records as the world's tallest wheel are underway.

The wheel is 25 meters higher than the London Eye on the south bank of the River Thames and it's also 25 meters bigger in diameter than its British counterpart.

With a total investment of 57 million yuan (US$7.1 million) the wheel, named the Star of Nanchang, is decorated with 6,500-meter-long lights that produce a magnificent sight at night.

(Xinhua News Agency January 12, 2007)