"Unlike traditional huge undersea ploughs used to bury cables, the new system can raise cable-burying efficiency by more than 10 times because of its power," said Zhu Jimao, director of the Institute of Underwater Engineering of Shanghai Jiao Tong University, who is leading a team of 10 researchers in ferreting out sub-sea cutting-edge technology.

The whole apparatus, known as ML-02 Shallow Water Cable Burying System, is composed of a control center, a cable transferring machine, and a cable burying machine or the robot which comprises of an injector that goes underwater, spraying highly pressurized water to dig "tunnels" at the bottom of the sea to entomb the cables, Zhu said.

The injector, which can spray water to as far as 130 meters away, works with the cable ship that provides computer logistics and global positioning.

The project, undertaken by the city's Salvage Bureau or the cable ship provider and Jiao Tong University, which is responsible for the cable-burying system, started last December. But it was not until June 1 that the cable-burying machines began to be used since researchers spent most of their time until then putting together their brainchild.

Weather permitting, the project - installing two 60-kilometer long power cables two meters below the sea bottom with a gap of 300 meters between them - will be concluded by Saturday.

"Zhu's new cable-burying system is a major breakthrough in the country's underwater cable-burying technology and also has a lot of market potential," said Jiang Xinmin, deputy general manager of S.B. Submarine Systems Co. Ltd., the country's biggest sub-sea engineering company.

The Institute of Underwater Engineering has completed many other sub-sea projects like China's first manned submersible and the Sino-Japan Submarine Optical Fiber Cable Burying System.

(Eastday.com.cn 06/13/2001)