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)