Waterway at Yangtze River Mouth gets deeper

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 ◆ Waterway at Yangtze River Mouth gets deeper

The first-phase of China's largest waterway-dredging project since 1949 passed an official appraisal recently.

The project aims to improve the efficiency of Yangtze navigation started in January 1998 by clearing the deep-water route at the mouth of the Yangtze River.

The first-phase project cost a total of 3.1 billion yuan (373.49 million US dollars) to increase the depth of the waterway from seven meters to 8.5 meters. Trial operations on the upgraded river route started in 2000.

The Yangtze is China's largest river. Silt build-up at the river mouth over the years caused a bottleneck in navigation in the 1990s.

The first-phase project has not only reduced silt, but also upgraded the one-way route into a two-way channel. The waterway can now handle up to 76 ships every day.

Approved by the State Council, the second-phase construction has just started. As a result of the project, the efficient river route will serve as an outlet to the rest of the world for China's inland provinces.