The waterway at the mouth of the Yangtze River will be dredged to a depth of 12.5 meters by the end of next year to allow fast passage for more large-scale cargo ships, the Yangtze Estuary Waterway Administration Bureau said Thursday.

The Yangtze estuary deep-draft channel, which is 92.2 kilometers long with a width at the bottom of 350 to 400 meters, will allow third or fourth-generation container ships to enter Shanghai Port under all weather conditions after the dredging work is completed.

Bulk carrier of up to 100,000-tons will be able to enter under tidal conditions.

The project has brought a direct economic impact of about 47.4 billion yuan (US$6.76 billion) to the shipping industry of Shanghai and Jiangsu Province since 2002, the project authority has calculated.

"We expect the annual passing capacity of large-scale ships to be 90,000 vessels after the dredging.

"The figure is below 70,000 vessels right now," said Zhou Falin, senior engineer of the waterway administration.

The project, with a total investment of 140 billion yuan, is in its third phase after the country's top planning body approved the plan in 1997.

According to research by the Shanghai Harbour Group, the project added 80 billion yuan to Jiangsu's GDP between 2001 and 2005

(Shanghai Daily March 28, 2008)