The Central Government has approved a 19-kilometer bridge and tunnel link in Shanghai, one of the biggest projects of its kind in the world.

The route to Chongming Island would combine a 10-kilometer suspension bridge with a nine-kilometer tunnel, the Shanghai-based Jiefang Daily said.

The Central Government's main planning body, the National Development and Reform Commission, recently approved a feasibility study for the 12 billion yuan (US$1.5 billion) project, the report said.

It was scheduled to be completed in 2007, but no date was given for the start of construction.

The Jiefang Daily said the bridge would connect with the tunnel at another small island midway. When completed, the 25.5-kilometer trip would take less than 30 minutes, it said.

At present, travel by boat takes 40 minutes by high-speed ferry or two hours by the regular ferry service.

Chongming, known as a sanctuary for waterfowl, is being aggressively developed as a residential and leisure outpost for Shanghai��s 20 million people. The island is at the mouth of the Yangtze River where it meets the sea.

Shanghai wants to turn the island into a haven for local residents seeking respite from the city.

The government is also planning to set up a conservation zone for the endangered Chinese sturgeon around Chongming.

If everything goes according to plan, the Chongming bridge would more than double the size of the world's longest suspension bridge, the nearly four kilometers Akashi Kaikyo bridge in Japan.

Construction was originally scheduled to start early this year, before the Central Government moved to delay the project in its efforts to slow the economy.

Shanghai had halted or scrapped 159 projects valued at 20.7 billion yuan since the drive to limit investment started in April, the South China Morning Post reported.

Chongming Island, the third largest island in China, occupies one fifth of the Shanghai area.