18-month plan aims to bring back beauty to the Bund

SHANGHAI: The Bund is to be given a facelift to make it more pedestrian-friendly, the city's urban planning bureau said yesterday.

The 18-month redevelopment plan, which will start at the end of the year, will restore the Bund's neoclassical landscape by reducing the size of the road and creating more space for parks, walkways and viewing platforms, bureau director Mao Jialiang said.

The amount of space for pedestrians will double, while the road will be narrowed from 10 lanes to four, as it was 15 years ago. The road will be closed to most vehicles, except buses and those picking up or setting down. All through traffic will be redirected underground.