A project to give Shenzhen much-wanted direct acess to the western Pearl River Delta is in danger of being shelved again.
Shenzhen first came up with the plan to build an underwater tunnel or a bridge to connect it with Zhongshan about five years ago - shortly after its request to be included in the Hong Kong-Zhuhai-Macau bridge scheme was rejected by Beijing due to Hong Kong's strong reaction.
Shenzhen responded by proposing to build the tunnel or bridge, which also raised concerns in Hong Kong as the project was to run parallel to the Hong Kong-Macau-Zhuhai bridge. Some mainland experts estimated that the Shenzhen-Zhongshan corridor could lure 40 per cent of the bridge's likely traffic away.
However, Shenzhen could not get political backing from either the provincial or the central government - both wanted the Hong Kong-Macau-Zhuhai bridge to have priority - and the plan was set aside.
Shenzhen revived the idea last year - this time apparently with the Guangdong government's blessing. Guangdong Governor Huang Huahua said in January that the project would be included in its 12th five-year plan. It was estimated to cost around 30 billion yuan (HK$35.6 billion).
But just as Shenzhen thought it had finally got what it wanted, it was told that the National Development and Reform Commission - the mainland's top economic planner - had decided to build a bridge between Humen in Dongguan and Nansha in Guangzhou as part of its regional railway project.