A FOOTBRIDGE in Bao’an District is costing 8.76 million yuan (US$1.35 million), five times the cost of an average footbridge, yesterday’s Southern Metropolis Daily reported.

    The footbridge, just outside the north entrance to Foxconn’s Longgang Complex, is 65.15 meters long and 5 meters wide and has two escalators at each end of the bridge, according to the paper.

    It was costing about 130,000 yuan for constructing each square meter of the footbridge, while an average footbridge cost only about 25,000 yuan per square meter, the newspaper said.

    “This is what it costs [to build a footbridge],” said an unidentified official of Longhua Subdistrict Office, which has the jurisdiction over the neighborhood.

    “The construction budget has been approved by all required government agencies. It is certainly worth it because it is useful for so many people,” the official said.

    There are many other factories including those in Qinghu Industrial Park, Shenzhen Cigarette Co. and Caihuang Electronics in the neighborhood.

    However, the official did not say which government agencies had approved the budget.

    The footbridge was one of several infrastructure projects being built by the subdistrict government to celebrate the fifth anniversary of the redefined subdistrict, said the paper. Guests would be invited to visit the footbridge during the celebration ceremony scheduled for today.

    The Longhua footbridge is even more expensive than a footbridge in Changzhou City, Jiangsu Province, which was called the most expensive footbridge in China in 2009.

    The 98-meter Changzhou bridge, which has two elevators and escalators, cost about 7 million yuan.

    (SD News)