Revised population estimates required in Shanghai

New estimates of the city's population in the coming years are urgently required before proceeding with an urban plan for the next 25 years, lawmakers said yesterday.

This came after Zhuang Shaoqin, director with the Shanghai Planning, Land and Resources Administration, told the legislators the city is working on its round of planning for 2040.

"Shanghai is facing great pressures on the population and resources, especially on environment and traffic," Zhuang admitted in his report to the legislators.

The city population has far surpassed that in its former planning, so the government should reevaluate and work out an ideal population capacity for the city, said Yu Lizhong, the chancellor of New York University Shanghai and a legislator.

Yu said the current general plan estimated the permanent population would be 20 million by 2020, but already the figure exceeds 23 million.

"The population is the drive to the city's development, but also a major consumption to the city's resources," he added.