The Hongshui River in south China will be dammed in early November to facilitate construction of the Longtan hydropower plant, which will be second only to the Three Gorges Project now being built on the middle reaches of the Yangtze River.

Long Xianjin, deputy general manager of the Longtan Hydropower Development Co. Ltd said the damming of the river will be a milestone for the Longtan project because then the project will be shifted from general digging to concrete pouring for the dam.

According to Long, the damming is taking place right on schedule and preparations have been completed.

Situated 15 kilometers away from the seat of Tian'e County in the Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region, the Longtan hydropower project is one of the main facilities for sending electricity from resource-rich west China to economically developed east China.

It will also help improve flood control capabilities on the middle and lower reaches of the Pearl River and will promote local economic development and benefit 10 million people who live in poverty-stricken areas of Guangxi and Guizhou Province.

The Longtan project will consist of such facilities as underground workshops for power generators, a ship lift and a 192- meter-high dam. It will cost 24.3 billion yuan (about 2.93 billion US dollars) for the first phase, and will be installed with seven generators with a generating capacity of 700,000 kw each. The project's planned installed capacity will total 5.4 million kw and the project will be able to generate 15.67 billion kwh of electricity a year.

Construction of the project began in July 2001. In accordance with the construction schedule, the river would be dammed in November 2003 and the first power generator will begin to generate electricity in July 2007.

The project will be finished around December 2009, said Long.

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