Chinese planners are apparently proposing to merge nine cities around the Pearl River Delta in the southern parts of the country, to build the world's biggest mega city, twice the size of Wales with a population of 42 million.
According to The Telegraph, the "Turn The Pearl River Delta Into One" method will produce a 16,000 square mile urban area that is 26 times larger geographically than Greater London, or twice the size of Wales.
The new mega-city will cover a large part of China's manufacturing heartland, stretching from Guangzhou to Shenzhen and with Foshan, Dongguan, Zhongshan, Zhuhai, Jiangmen, Huizhou and Zhaoqing, which accounts for nearly a tenth of the Chinese economy, the paper said.
Around 150 major infrastructure projects would reportedly link the transport, energy, water, and telecommunications networks of the nine cities jointly at a cost of some two trillion Yuan (190 billion pounds) over the next ten years.
The paper quoted Ma Xiangming, the chief planner at the Guangdong Rural and Urban Planning Institute and a senior consultant on the project, as saying that an express rail line will also join the hub with nearby Hong Kong.
"The idea is that when the cities are integrated, the residents can travel around liberally and use the health care and other facilities in the different areas," Ma added.
He said that it will help increase industry and jobs more evenly across the region and public services will also be distributed more fairly, adding that 29 rail lines, totaling 3,100 miles, will be included, cutting rail journeys around the urban area to an utmost of one hour between different city centers.
The planners consider that the project would help in reduction of phone bills by 85 per cent and improve conditions of hospitals and schools. Besides, the major crisis of pollution around the Pearl River Delta caused because of its industrialization would also be apparently addressed.
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