The city government announced on January 29 it will complete a batch of key urban projects this year, including a double-decker tunnel under the Huangpu River and a subway-line extension connecting downtown to Baoshan District.

"We will push ahead the city's construction of traffic facilities this year," Xiong Jianping, director of the Shanghai Construction and Management Commission, said yesterday during a government meeting.

Once completed, the 2,785-meter-long Fuxing Road E. Tunnel, which will connect Fuxing Road in Puxi with Zhangyang Road in Pudong, will become the world's first two-level underground passage.

The 12-kilometer-long subway-line extension will stretch from the northern end of the city's Metro Transportation No. 1 at Shanghai Railway Station to Baoshan District. Once complete, the city's metro and Maglev system will stretch 124 kilometers.

Additionally, the city also vowed to extend its expressway network from the current 240 kilometers to 364 kilometers, further facilitating people traveling between downtown, rural areas and outlying provinces.

To relieve traffic congestions, the city will renovate several major downtown areas, including roads around People's Square, Yuyuan Garden and Lujiazui, to better facilitate Shanghai's increasing traffic volume.

City officials vowed, however, to guarantee that 10 percent of the city's urban projects won't block public roads.

To improve the local environment, the government is planning to construct 1,800 hectares of green land - parks, lawns and forests - lifting its per capita green area to 10 square meters from the current 9.2 square meters. Officials also said they will expand the city's recycling program to ensure that garbage in 50 percent of downtown residential areas is separated before collection.

The government also announced that it will relocate up to 80,000 families this year while establishing a very strict system to protect key historical buildings from being destroyed.