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16 September 2003 - China is to add to its already substantial hydropower capacity by damming a river in the southwest for a 24.3 bn yuan ($2.9 bn) power plant, the official Xinhua news agency said.
Power has recently begun to flow in the grid from the world's largest hydropower project - the Three Gorges project, on the Yangtze River.
The Longtan power plant, the largest in the country after the Three Gorges Dam, would have installed capacity of 4200 MW. It would involve stemming the flow of the Hongshui River in the southwestern province of Guangxi and work on this could start in early November.
"The blocking will be a milestone, marking the turning point from the basic digging period to dam-building period," Xinhua quoted Long Xianjin, deputy general manager of the Longtan Hydropower Development Co, as saying.
Some 6000 residents in the dam area would be relocated, it said.
China's surging economy is gasping for electricity. Consumption has been growing at about 16 per cent annually, but blackouts have plagued more than half China's provinces this year.
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