Villagers' protests halt railway construction

Source: Xinhua  |   2009-1-9  |     NEWSPAPER EDITION

WORK on a railway construction site in south China's Guangdong Province remained stopped yesterday after protests by villagers worried about resettlement.

Zhang Hong, an official with the China Railway No. 4 Engineering Group in charge of the construction site of the Wuhan-Guangzhou Railway, said the company had planned to resume work yesterday, the fifth day since the stoppage began on Sunday.

However, about 100 residents of Nangang Village in the suburbs of Guangzhou protested at the site, foiling attempts to resume construction.

Workers at the site had been forced to stop work for a week last month, said Zhang. "Villagers would throw bricks at our workers if they did not agree to stop work," he said.

A villager surnamed Ou said the villagers protested because more than 100 families, who would have to move away and make room for the railway, were worried about their resettlement.

The families had not received any information about where and how they would be resettled, Ou said.

China started building the 995-kilometer railway between Wuhan, capital of central China's Hubei Province, and Guangzhou in June 2005 and plans to finish it this year.