|
Passage of the permanent ship lock at Three Gorges Project being built at the mid reaches of the Yangtze will be free of charge, said Cao Guangjing, deputy general manager of the China Yangtze River Three Gorges Project Development Corporation, Monday.
The permanent ship lock will go into trial operation on June 16 after the Three Gorges reservoir, which began to fill water on Sunday, is scheduled to reach the water level of 135 meters by June 15.
By then, navigation on the Yangtze River, which has been suspended since last November when the river's natural flow was halted, will resume, allowing ships to pass the gigantic dam in one and a half hours via the 6.44-km-long lock on the northern bank of the Yangtze.
The ship lock, which was completed in April 2002 after about a decade's construction efforts, provides a two-way lifting facility for the 113-m drop between the upstream and downstream separated by the dam.
According to Cao, operation costs of the ship lock will be covered by the revenue obtained from the sale of hydroelectricity generated by the Three Gorges Project.
The construction of the mammoth dam project, which was first launched in 1993, is due to be completed in 2009, when its 26 power-generating units with a combined capacity of 18.2 million kilowatts will be operational.
It will be able to generate an average of 84.7 billion kw/hours of electricity annually upon completion.
(Xinhua News Agency June 3, 2003)
|
