A PROJECT to build an underwater tunnel connecting Shenzhen and Zhongshan is being assessed by officials and experts from the provincial government and the two cities.

“The project is highly likely to be approved. Construction of the tunnel will probably start around 2010,” Friday’s Southern Metropolis Daily reported, quoting Zheng Tianxiang, a professor with the Hong Kong, Macao and Zhuhai Research Center of Zhongshan University.

Zheng said Humen Bridge, which greatly shortens traveling time from Shenzhen and Dongguan to cities in the western Pearl River Delta region, had been operating to full capacity in recent years. A second passage connecting Shenzhen and the western Delta region was high on the development agenda for the whole Pearl River Delta, he said.

A proposal for the second passage was initiated at Shenzhen’s annual municipal people’s congress in 2006. It originally proposed a bridge.

However, a thorough study by a consulting firm appointed by the Shenzhen city government suggested that building an underwater tunnel to connect Shenzhen and Zhongshan would serve the purpose better than a bridge in terms of effectiveness and the impact on environment, the Daily said.

A bridge would seriously affect shipping in the region, which has ports handling a number of large cargo vessels daily, said Leng Hui, a senior official with Shenzhen’s transport bureau. A tunnel 30 meters under the seabed would not interfere with shipping.

Leng said the underwater tunnel, which can be built over the shortest distance, will also have the least impact on the environment, particularly on water quality.

The Daily said the project was “high on the 2008 agenda” of the provincial government which meant “it is likely to be approved soon.” (Wei Jie)