THE upgrade of the Wuxi section near Shanghai of the Beijing-Hangzhou Canal has been completed and passed inspection, widening the channel to 90 metre and deepening it to 3.2 metres, allowing access to 1,000-tonne vessels, Xinhua reports.

    The CNY1.1 billion (US$169.5 million) upgrade of the 39.2-kilometre Wuxi section started in December 2007 and was funded by the Ministry of Transport, the Jiangsu provincial government and Wuxi City, costing CNY1.1 billion (US$169.5 million).

    Wuxi section is the busiest section of the canal and increasing cargo volume has outstripped its capacity. Its annual cargo movement is equivalent to five times of that of Wuxi section of the Shanghai-Nanjing railway and six times of that of the Wuxi section of the Shanghai-Nanjing expressway.
 

(Source:http://www.schednet.com)