China will spend 10 billion yuan (US$1.2 billion) in improving
the navigable capacity on the Yangtze River, the country's longest,
in 17 years, said an official Saturday.
The money will be spent in dredging of the river's lower
reaches, expanding the middle reaches, and extending the navigable
course on the upper reaches, said Huang Qiang, director of the
Yangtze River Shipping Affairs Bureau with the Chinese Ministry of
Communications.
According to Huang, the lower reaches downstream Nanjing,
capital of Jiangsu
Province in east China, will be dredged to facilitate
navigation of 50,000 dead-weight-tonnage ocean-going ships on all
weather conditions.
"Study of the impact of the Three Gorges Project on the
navigation course on the middle reaches will be intensified," said
Huang, who emphasized river sections on the middle reaches that
form barriers to navigation must be tackled and removed.
Efforts will be made to extend the navigable course to Shuifu of
Yunnan
Province in southwest China on the upper reaches.
Currently, only 15 percent of the Yangtze's navigable capacity
is being utilized, said Cai Qihua, director of the Yangtze River
Committee with the Chinese Ministry of Water Resources.
According to Cai, shipping capacity of the mainstream of the
Yangtze River will reach 800 million tons by the year of 2020,
including 8 million TEUs of containers, almost three times and five
times the 2004 levels, respectively.
(Xinhua News Agency April 23, 2005)