Approximately 11.91 million telecom users, or 60 percent of the total who had suffered suspension in communication links because of snow damage in China, had the service restored by Wednesday, sources with the Ministry of Industry Information (MII) said on Thursday.

Heavy snow and icy rain falling since Jan. 10 in China's eastern, central and southern regions have caused deaths, structural collapses, blackouts, highway closures and crop destruction.

The MII sources said owing to the extreme weather, more than 16,000 mobile telecommunication base stations for relay line had so far discontinued services, 46,000 electrical wire poles had collapsed and 9,678.2 kilometers of telecom links had been devastated. All these affected 19.28 million telecom users and caused direct economic loss of nearly 150 million yuan (US$20.8 million).

Those areas suffering the worst breakdowns in telecom links included Guizhou, Hunan and Jiangxi provinces.

The sources added that to maintain operation of telecom equipment, oil and electricity were now badly needed.

In a related development, storage of coal used for electricity generating has declined to 21.29 million tons, less than half of the normal amount, according to the State Electricity Regulatory Commission.

China's 17 provincial-level regions adopted power-rationing measures as coal shortages cut power generation. Continuous freezing and snowy weather across large areas of China sharply raised electricity demand, but also hindered coal transportation, which exacerbated power shortages.

Power plants that produced seven percent of the country's thermal power were shut down because of a lack of coal, the latest figures from the State Electricity Regulatory Commission showed.

Media report said north China's coal-rich provinces are beefing up production and shipping coal to the blizzard-plagued southern regions.

About 4.5 million tons of coal is expected to arrive in Guangzhou ports from north China's ports in Bohai Bay on a fleet of 125 cargo ships, some of which had canceled international missions to assist in coal shipping from north to south, the Guangzhou Daily reported on Wednesday.

(Xinhua News Agency February 1, 2008)