Yangtze River Waterway Bureau 2013 meeting was held yesterday in Yichang City. The meeting disclosed that the government would invest more than 4 billion yuan to systematically remediate Jingjiang waterway in the middle reaches of Yangtze River, aiming to further release the golden waterway’s shipping potential.

Jingjiang River is located in the middle reaches of Yangtze River, flowing from Zhicheng in Yichang City, to Chenglingji in Hunan Province. With a total length of 347.2km, more than 17 shallows such as Taipingkou and Majiazui are obstructing the navigation. The Secretary Xiong Xuebin of Yangtze River Waterway Bureau introduced that,”Jingjiang River has a plain sandy riverbed and a dramatic evolution of bottomland. As a result, implementation of waterway regulation is a worldwide problem.”

Xiong Xuebin also pointed out that the aim is to remediate 13 shallow and dangerous waterways within 280.5km range from Changmen Creek to Xiongjia Continent. In the next 3 to 5 years, the remediation process is to deepen the waterways to 3.5m and widen them to 150m, with the bending radius of 1000m. The remediation will allow 3000 tons cargo ships and 10,000 tons fleet to travel through in the whole year. Predicted by the research organization that, through remediating the waterways, the freight volumes of Yichang to Jingzhou Section and Jingzhou to Chenglingji Section will reach 136.17 million tons and 141.06 million tons respectively, and the waterway capacity of middle reaches of Yangtze River will be greatly enhanced. As a result, the shipping efficiency will be significantly improved.

Source from CNSS