Over 20,000 people be moved from Three Gorges
( 2001-07-16 14:56 ) (8 )

The government of west China's Chongqing Municipality planned to relocate 23,000 people this month for the construction of the Three Gorges project, the world's largest of its kind, according to a local official in Chongqing Monday.

And 27,000 more will be moved next month, the official said.

The whole resettlement will involve a total of 1.13 million people in the area, of whom about 80 percent are living in Chongqing. The government planned to resettle about 125,000 people by the end of next year.

Last year in a trial program about 10,000 people were successfully resettled to other parts of the country.

The Three Gorges Project, launched in 1993, will begin generating hydroelectricity on June 1, 2003, and be completed in 2009 at a cost of 100 billion yuan (about US$12 billion).

Of the total expenditure, more than 40 billion yuan will be used for the resettlement.