Navigation of China's Three Gorges ship lock resumed in both directions at around midday Monday after a 37-hour halt due to foggy weather.

Navigation at the five-tier ship lock resumed at 11:30 AM as the fog faded and visibility returned to navigational requirements, the Yangtze River Three Gorges Navigation Bureau said.

More than 200 vessels had been stranded at the Three Gorges Dam area since the thick fog rolled in late on Saturday.

By 3:30 PM, 50 vessels had passed the ship lock, bureau worker Liu Min told Xinhua. All the stranded vessels would pass the lock by late Tuesday as each pass took about three hours.

Weather forecasters say the sky at the dam area will be clear on Monday night.

The Three Gorges -- the Qutang, Wuxia and Xiling gorges -- extends about 200 kilometers on the upper and middle reaches of the 6,300-kilometer Yangtze, China's longest river.

China launched the Three Gorges hydropower project and water control facility in 1993 with a budget of US$22.5 billion.

A 185-meter-high dam was completed in 2006. The five-tier ship lock was commissioned in 2003.

Workers have so far completed installation of 21 generators. The project's 26 turbo-generators are designed to produce 84.7 billion kwh of electricity a year after its scheduled completion this year.

(Xinhua News Agency March 18, 2008)