The number of people relocated to make way for the massive Three
Gorges Project in China has surpassed the planned 1.13 million and
is expected to top 1.4 million, an official said on Sunday.
Currently, more than 1.2 million people, or over 85 percent of
the updated plan, have been resettled, said Pu Haiqing, head of the
Office of the Three Gorges Project Construction Committee under the
State Council.
The rest will be relocated before the water level in the
reservoir reaches 175 meters when the world's largest hydro-power
project is completed in 2008, one year earlier than scheduled, Pu
said.
The government, seeking harmonious interaction between economic
development and natural resources, decided to increase the number
in consideration of the bearing capacity of local ecology, the
official said.
Launched in 1993 and being built with an estimated cost of 180
billion yuan (about US$22.5 billion), the Three Gorges Project on
the middle reaches of the Yangtze River, China's longest, will be
installed with 26 generators with the combined generating capacity
amounting to 18.2 million kw and be able to generate 84.7 billion
kwh of electricity annually.
(Xinhua News Agency October 2, 2006)
