THE development zone for the Expo Park has been adjusted a little in order to solve certain problems, such as an insufficient number of roads, inadequate leeway for optimizing the layout of pavilions, and an excessive contrast between the Expo Park and surrounding areas, according to Huang Jianzhi, deputy director general for Shanghai World Expo Co-ordination.

According to the original plan, the Expo site was to be situated between the Huangpu and the Lupu bridges, to the south of the elevated Zhongshan Nanlu and to the north of Pudong Nanlu and Yaohua Lu. The planning control area demarcated in the bidding document covered about 5.4 square kilometres (excluding water area).

Experts and professionals have analyzed these initial plans comprehensively and concluded it is necessary to expand the original planning area somewhat.

In accordance with the basic principle of "appropriate expansion, internal optimization and considerable scale", the redline area is to be expanded to the west of the Lupu Bridge in Pudong, allocating some buildings built after 1998 to the planning control area.

The site for the Expo pavilions and supporting facilities is now expected to cover about 5.53 square kilometres.

The length of dedicated Huangpu River waterfront will also be extended, from the initial 6.2 kilometres to 8.3 kilometres, according to Huang.

World Expo 2010 Shanghai is expected to attract delegations from 200 countries and regions to participate. The estimated number of visitors is 70 million.

When such factors as transportation, entrances and exits, environment and after-use are considered comprehensively, it is appropriate to add 3 square kilometres to the enclosed area.

The China Pavilion, Theme Pavilion, national pavilions and entertainment centres are to be set up along the east bank of the Huangpu River. The regional pavilions, enterprise pavilions and city experimental areas will be allotted along the western bank.

Transportation inside and outside the Expo Park is also a central concern. The draft planning allows for 400,000 visitors every day, rising to 800,000 visitors a day during the peak period. Some facilities are planned based on visitor flow of 300,000 people per hour.

Five trams within the site will be operating and the interval between them will be kept down to 2.5 minutes for the main traffic arteries.

"We are also studying the possibility of introducing the maglev to the Expo Park and optimizing the surrounding road map," Huang said.

According to an insider who is familiar with the Expo plan, the maglev could be extended to link Longyang Lu Station and the Expo Park, a distance of seven kilometres. "But the price per kilometre may be even higher than the presently-existing 32-kilometre track, which required investment of over 10 billion yuan (US$1.21 billion)," he said.

In addition, water traffic is also being considered to relieve the pressure on other transit systems.