Commentary

China Watch

Forum Digests

Columnists

Letters

Learning a lesson

(China Daily)
Updated: 2008-11-17 07:33

The 75-sq-m cave-in on the construction site of the Hangzhou subway on Saturday comes just a week after the central government announced its 4 trillion-yuan fiscal stimulus package. The accident that killed four and left 17 missing till yesterday afternoon has its lesson for similar projects elsewhere. It is a reminder that feasibility studies must be carefully conducted before and great caution employed after large-scale infrastructure projects are launched.

The Hangzhou subway with an estimated investment of 100 billion yuan is a huge infrastructure project in Zhejiang province. The cave-in is as deep as 15 m and residents living within 500 m have already been evacuated to avert any possible further tragedy and to facilitate rescue operations.

Work on the entire line has already been suspended. An investigation team has been organized to probe the cause of the accident and make sure no similar cave-ins take place before the construction is resumed.

It is still too early to conclude that it was caused by human errors either in construction or design. But it is undoubtedly important for the investigation to find out the exact cause behind it, not only for the continuation of this project, but for other upcoming infrastructure constructions.

While many local governments are rolling up their sleeves for either infrastructure or social welfare projects, what they should bear in mind is the traditional proverb: more haste, no speed.

The accident in Hangzhou will undoubtedly be very costly and the construction will also be delayed. If the cave-in could be anticipated by taking into consideration the complicated geological conditions in the city, the deaths of construction workers and economic losses would have been avoided.

Heated debates were once heard over the construction of subways. Some strongly opposed the costly underground transport means, which they believed would be a waste of money for middle-sized or small cities. The Hangzhou subway may not be an unnecessary one. Yet, the accident should be a warning that if the construction of a subway is too costly because of complicated geological conditions, it may be better to consider cheaper and safer options for urban transport.

The fiscal stimulus package is expected to help our economy pick up steam. But spending money is one thing and spending it efficiently is quite another.

It is never too late to mend the fence even after the sheep is lost. Yet it should be a better idea to strengthen the fence before the sheep is lost.

Whatever the investigation results, we hope that the construction companies involved and quality supervision watchdogs will do a good job to mend the fence so that the subway construction in the city will continue in a safe and efficient manner.

We also hope that other governments will learn a lesson from this accident in choosing the right project, making the right preparations for the launch of their projects and having enough supervision mechanism in place for their smooth construction.

(China Daily 11/17/2008 page4)