Wuhan too hasty with metro contracts

Authorities in Wuhan, Hubei Province, recently cancelled all nine of the contracts to name the stations on the city's soon-to-be-opened second subway line when controversy erupted after the rights to name the Jianghan Road Station, located near a historic area of the city, were sold to Zhouheiya, a snack food company.

The government of Wuhan did the right thing scraping its naming contracts. The city's public rail system, after all, is meant for the benefit of the public and so local citizens should be the ones who decide the names of stations.

At the same time though, one could easily find fault with the local government for canceling its naming contracts so abruptly. Zhouheiya and others placed their winning naming bids nearly a year ago, and now this money will have to be returned. But their bid money could have been used to fund other projects which may have furthered their business interests during that time. The question that will invariably come next is: how much should authorities in Wuhan offer bidders in compensation?

<i>The author is Xu Lifan, an economic commentator.</i>