The Yangtze River will operate more like highways in the near future, with boats running in an orderly manner along a series of shipping lanes.
The local section of the river will have four lanes, two in both directions, to facilitate vessels of different sizes, according to the Shanghai Maritime Safety Administration, which will set up the shipping lanes by the end of the year.
The practice, which is called "a routing system" on the water according to maritime officials, aims to rationalize the sailing environment by improving shipping efficiency because of the soaring shipping turnover on the Yangtze River in the region.
Maritime experts finished a 72-hour survey of the shipping turnover in the city last week.
After analyzing the results, they stressed it is imperative that the city standardizes shipping on the river and begins to follow international practices as soon as possible.
Xu Mingqiang, a maritime official, said yesterday the new practice means ships that are up to 80 meters in length are required to sail in the two outside lanes, giving up most of the waterway to larger ships, which will use the two middle lanes.
"Large ships will no longer be disturbed by their smaller counterparts and it's also much safer for the small vessels to sail in their own lanes," Xu said. "It's like cars and bikes using different lanes on the street."
Officials said that 155 shipping accidents have occurred between January 2001 and September 2003 on the local part of the Yangtze River.
Four accidents that involved collisions between small and large ships have happened since the beginning of the year.
"About 60 percent of the ships sailing on the local part of the river are large ones and the turnover is increasing by 15 percent annually," said Zhou Zhengbao, a spokesman for the administration. "The current disorderly situation has greatly impaired the efficiency of the river."