Shanghai rejects request for "maglev" protest
SHANGHAI (Reuters) - Shanghai has rejected a request by activists to hold a protest against a planned extension of the city's high-speed "maglev" train line, authorities said on Thursday.
Hundreds of people marched through the streets of China's financial hub in protest last month, fearing the effects of radiation from the magnetic levitation train running near their homes.
It was Shanghai's largest public demonstration since thousands took part in sometimes violent anti-Japanese street protests in 2005.
"We have made the decision not to give approval for the demonstration" which had been planned for March 1, a spokeswoman for the news department of the Public Security Bureau said.
The mayor of Shanghai vowed late last month to work harder to ease social tensions following the protest.
China has the only commercial maglev in operation in the world, developed and built by the government and a German consortium including industrial giant Siemens
Launched in 2003, the maglev reaches speeds of over 400 kilometers (250 miles) an hour as it floats on a magnetic cushion between Shanghai's international airport and an outlying part of its financial district in Pudong, 30 km (19 miles) away.
The government wants to extend the line by 32 km (20 miles) through Shanghai to near the city's domestic airport, and then possibly to the tourist city of Hangzhou 200 km (125 miles) away.
Government officials insist the project is safe.
(Reporting by Sophie Taylor; Editing by Nick Macfie and Sugita Katyal)
