SHANGHAI: The local government has started preliminary plans for the long-awaited Disney theme park in the city, a local official said.

A farmer looks at the land in Zhaohang Village of Shanghai's Pudong New Area yesterday. The villagers will be relocated to make way for a project rumored to be a Disney theme park. [Gao Erqiang]

The plan includes resettlement of a 4-million-sq-m area in Shanghai's Pudong New Area covering the villages of Zhaohang, Jinjia and Qigan in Chuansha Town, said an official at Zhaohang Village Committee, who declined to reveal his name.

"We haven't received any formal notice from the district government on the Disney theme park issue, but we've been gathering information of more than 4,000 residents in the village in recent weeks," the source said.

The government will probably start evaluating residents' houses as early as this December for the Disney project, a villager surnamed Xu said.

Speculation about a Disney theme park in Shanghai has been circulating for years. Earlier media reports said the $3.5 billion theme park will cover an area of 10 sq km, to be located at the east bank of Huangpu River, bordering Pudong district's Chuansha town.

The first phase of the project will be located south of Huanglou region, a 10-minute drive from Shanghai Pudong International Airport. The second and third phases will expand towards the southwest, according to Shanghai Securities News, citing an unidentified expert in urban development research in Shanghai.

Land to be auctioned today in Chuansha for the Disney project is likely to break through 10,000 yuan per sq m, National Business Daily reported, citing Zhao Yuchuan, a manager from real estate agency Fangfang based in Shanghai.

Shanghai Mayor Han Zheng said on Sunday that the city will hold a press conference as early as this week to talk about details of the theme park, without elaborating on whether the park had been approved by the central government.

Local media reported last week citing unidentified sources that the visit of United States President Barack Obama to China from Nov 15 to 18 could accelerate the Disney theme park's landing in Shanghai.