Defence Facilities Find Double UsageLocal governments and private developers have shown a positive attitude towards constructing civil defence schemes because, they say, the projects can also be used as good places for shopping, entertainment and factories.The Law of Civil Defence in 1996 and Shanghai's Rule on Civil Defence in 1999 state that civil defence projects should be built to protect people, but can also be used to support transportation and infrastructure facilities. Developers of residential quarters should also have civil projects built. Otherwise, "they have to pay some money to have the government build those projects," according to Shanghai's Rule on Civil Defence. lDeputies from the ocal people's congress deputies found in a visit on Monday that the rules had been implemented smoothly during the past year. In the past, however, defence projects were like hot potatoes for developers and management offices because many completed projects were left unused, said an official with Shanghai's Civil Defence Office, who asked not to be named. Developers used to think those projects required high fees for daily maintenance, but produced little, he said. He said the Law on Civil Defence helped improve the situation because it made clear that the profit derived from the usage of those projects belonged to the investors who built them. This contributed greatly to the increasing popularity among developers, including private-property developers. The most successful shopping areas based in underground civil defence projects in Shanghai are the shopping malls under the People's Square and Xujiahui. Schools have also taken advantage of the underground civil defence projects as good places to entertain their students. "About 5 per cent of the civil defence projects in Shanghai are rented by developers as shopping centres, and most others are leased out for production, storage and parking space," said an unnamed official. The total area for civil defence in the city reached 2.8 million square metres by 1999, making the average sheltering space for each person 0.3 square metre. |
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