China launches a 77.2 billion yuan expansion project for the Three Gorges Dam's "water staircase" to enhance Yangtze River shipping capacity.

Foreign Media: China has officially launched the Three Gorges Dam "water staircase" expansion project, costing 77.2 billion RMB (approximately 11.4 billion USD), with plans to construct a series of massive new ship locks alongside existing facilities over nearly a decade, aiming to address the bottleneck issue caused by the old ship locks and elevator lock system built in 2003, which now hinder Yangtze River navigation.

This project has been included in China's "14th Five-Year Plan" (2026–2030), aiming to double the cargo capacity at the Three Gorges, enabling larger-tonnage vessels to traverse this longest waterway in Asia, enhancing logistics connectivity between inland industrial hubs such as Chongqing and Wuhan and coastal ports like Nanjing and Shanghai, thus supporting internal connectivity and sustained growth of the world's second-largest economy.

Original Source: toutiao.com/article/1867628806502412/

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