China News Service, January 5th. Su Jie, deputy director of the Comprehensive Planning Department of the Ministry of Transport, said on the 5th that the throughput of the Yangtze River trunk line in 2020 will exceed 3 billion tons, a record high, an increase of 40% compared to 2015.
Data map: Cargo ship launched into the Yangtze River.
Photo by Liu Xueyi
The National Development and Reform Commission held a special press conference on the 5th to introduce the results of the fifth anniversary of the development of the Yangtze River Economic Belt.
At the meeting, a reporter asked: What measures has the country taken in recent years to improve the function of the Yangtze River’s golden waterway and what effects have it achieved?
"We have thoroughly implemented the spirit of General Secretary Xi Jinping's important instructions on the development of the Yangtze River Economic Belt and transportation, adhered to "ecology first, benefiting from the situation, integration of dredging, and equal emphasis on construction and maintenance", and continued to improve the function of the golden waterway to support the high-quality development of the Yangtze River Economic Belt. "Su Jie said.
Su Jie pointed out that first, according to the idea of “deep downstream, smooth middle reaches, and extended upstream”, speed up the governance of the Yangtze River golden waterway system.
Over the past five years, more than 20 waterway construction projects have been implemented, including the first phase of the South Passage of the Yangtze River Estuary, the 12.5-meter deep water channel below Nanjing, the 6-meter water deep channel from Wuhan to Anqing, the middle reaches of Jingjiang Changmen River to Xiongjiazhou, and the upper reaches of Chaotianmen to Kowloon. A number of major national projects such as Poe have been completed and put into operation one after another, and the world’s largest and most technically difficult Three Gorges ship lift has been completed and put into operation.
At present, 50,000-ton ships under Nanjing, 5000-ton ships under Wuhan, 3000-ton ships under Chongqing, and 2000-ton ships under Yibin.
The second is to strengthen the integration and development of new technologies, and continuously improve the service guarantee capability of the channel.
The digital waterway of the Yangtze River trunk line is fully connected, and the electronic waterway map coverage rate reaches 100%. It realizes the interconnection with the Hanjiang and Ganjiang Rivers. The dynamic monitoring and emergency support capabilities of the waterway are significantly improved. The water depth compliance rate and the normal use rate of navigation aids have reached 100%.
At the same time, it provides users with visual information and personalized services to assist ships in safe navigation in situations such as ships meeting, yaw obstructing navigation, and special waters.
The third is to implement the concept of ecological priority and green development, and carry out the construction of green waterways.
Implement the concept of ecological and environmental protection throughout the development cycle of the Yangtze River Channel, adopt ecological environmental protection engineering structures, implement measures such as ecological environmental monitoring, multiplication and release, and innovatively carry out ecological conservation areas, ecological wetlands and other habitat restoration and construction.
In the past five years, the greening rate of the revetment project of the channel project has reached more than 80%, and more than 160 supporting ecological revetments, ecological beach revetments, artificial fish nests, artificial reefs, etc. have been built, and more than 9 million fish and snails have been compensated.
Su Jie pointed out that the improved channel conditions of the Yangtze River Channel will promote the development of large-scale ships. In 2020, the average tonnage of ships on the Yangtze River’s trunk line will reach 1960 tons, an increase of 42% over 2015. The rapid development of river-sea direct and river-sea combined transport has effectively guaranteed the Yangtze River. The economic and social development of the economic belt, the throughput of the Yangtze River trunk line exceeded 3 billion tons in 2020, a record high, an increase of 40% over 2015.
Su Jie said that in the next step, the navigability of arterial waterways will be further improved systematically, the construction of golden waterways in the whole river basin will be accelerated, and the aorta with smooth domestic and international double circulation will be created.