An executive with the China Yangtze River Three Gorges Project Development Corporation has said that the Three Gorges Dam will be finished nine months ahead of schedule.

Cao Guangjing, deputy general manager of the corporation, said that by May this year, workers would have completed the portion of the dam on southern bank of the river to the height of 185 meters.

"The Three Gorges Project will be capable of flood control on the Yangtze by then and generating more electricity as water levels in the reservoir rise from their current 135 meters to 156 meters," Cao said.

Situated near the Xiling Gorge, the easternmost gorge in the middle reaches of the Yangtze River, the Three Gorges Dam is designed to be 2,309 meters long and 185 meters high.

Launched in 1993, the Three Gorges Project, including the construction of the 185-m-high dam and 26 generators on both banks of the Yangtze, is being built in three phases.

The preparations and construction of the first phase were carried out between 1993 and 1997. The Yangtze was dammed at the Three Gorges area for the first time on November 8, 1997.

Workers began laying concrete for the dam from the northern bank of the Yangtze in late 1998 and completed this section of the dam, 1,600-m long, in October 2002.

Concrete-laying work in the portion close to the southern bank, extending 660 m, began in July 2003 and is scheduled to finish by early 2007.

In accordance with the original plan, the Three Gorges Project, with an estimated cost of 180 billion yuan (approximately US$21.7 billion), will also have 26 generators with a combined generating capacity of 18.2 million kw.

To date, 14 turbo-generators have been successfully installed and put to work on the northern bank of the Yangtze. They generated 49.09 billion kw/hour of electricity in 2005.

The entire Three Gorges Project is expected to be completed in 2009 and by then, it will be able to generate 84.7 billion kwh of electricity annually.

(Xinhua News Agency February 5, 2006)