Work began Thursday on a new, multi-purpose dam on the Hanjiang River, a tributary of the Yangtze River, China's longest waterway.

The Xinglong Dam is one of the three main projects in the central route of a massive south-to-north diversion plan to bring water from the Yangtze River to the parched northern regions of China.

Zhang Jiyao, chief of the Office for the South-to-North Water Diversion Project of the State Council (cabinet), announced the start of work at a launch ceremony Thursday morning in Duobao Township, Tianmen City, in central China's Hubei Province.

Zhang said the dam will cost 3.05 billion yuan (about 448 million U.S. dollars).

(Xinhua News Agency February 26, 2009)