Construction of the giant Three Gorges Dam on the Yangtze River is due to end in two weeks' time, marking the completion of the major part of the Three Gorges Hydropower Project.

It will be completed nine months ahead of schedule on May 20, Xinhua quoted Cao Guangjing, deputy general manager of the China Yangtze River Three Gorges Project Development Corporation, as saying on Sunday.

The concrete pouring for the dam on the right bank of the Three Gorges Dam has entered the final phase as "there are less than 3,000 cubic metres of concrete left to be placed before the dam will finally be completed," Cao said.

The dam, which is 2,309 metres long, 185 metres high and 15 metres wide will be the world's largest dam, involving 16.1 million cubic metres of reinforced concrete.

The construction was divided into two phases the right and the left banks.

Workers began to pour concrete for the approximately 1,600 metre long left bank in late 1998 and finished that part of the work in October 2002.

The construction on the right bank started in July 2003 and now the two parts of the dam have joined as one and most of the dam sections of the right bank have reached the final height.

Launched in 1993 the Three Gorges Project, which includes the dam and 26 generators on both banks of the river, is scheduled to be completed in 2009, when it will be able to generate 84.7 billion kilowatt-hours of electricity annually, Xinhua reported.

It is said that the early and full completion of the dam is expected to accelerate its role in flood prevention by two years.

In another development, a further 80,000 rural residents will move out of the Three Gorges reservoir area in Chongqing Municipality at the end of the year.

Starting in September, this will be the fourth batch of the huge migration effort.

It is reported that the municipality has resettled a total of 958,000 people in 11 other provinces and municipalities since the construction began. In total 1.13 million people will be relocated from Chongqing and neighbouring Hubei Province.

Source: China Daily