A major power transmission line that links Three Gorges project with Shanghai starts operation on yesterday, amid efforts to ensure the city's huge demand for power.

The 500-kv power transmission line, with investment of 894 million U.S dollars, can send three million kw of electricity from the world's largest hydro power project in central Hubei province to Shanghai.

Officials estimate the electricity carried by the line will account for one seventh of the total power consumption in Shanghai next year, which was plagued by power shortages in the past several years.

The line runs 1,040 kilometers through four provinces of Hubei,Anhui, Jiangsu, and Zhejiang before reaching Shanghai.

It is the third such power transmission line built in Three Gorges Project on the middle reaches of the Yangtze River. Two others connect the project to Changzhou, a city in eastern Jiangsu province, and Guangzhou, capital of southern Guangdong province.

Launched in 1993 and built at an estimated cost of 180 billion yuan (23 billion U.S. dollars), the Three Gorges Project will have26 generators with a combined generating capacity of 18.2 million kw and will be able to generate 84.7 billion kwh of electricity annually when it is completed in 2009.