Lu Youmei, vice chairman of the Committee for the Construction of Three Gorges Project under the State Council, told Xinhua that work on the project is going smoothly as planned.

About 80 officials with relevant administrations under the State Council and experts are testing the reservoir and ship lock before they are put into operation.

The water level of the reservoir will be raised to 135 meters by June 15 and the 6.4-km-long ship lock will be put into use on the same day.

The total investment in the project will reach 180 billion yuan, 20 billion less than expected, Lu said.

By March this year 91 billion yuan had already been invested in the project.

Two power generating units, each with a capacity of 700,000 kilowatts, will be put into operation in August and another two will be in use in October.

The whole project is expected to be completed in 2009.

(Xinhua News Agency May 15, 2003)