Shanghai Daily News

The city plans to invest 1.99 billion yuan (US$248.7 million) over the next five years to clear up its inner rivers, and link them to major ports and nearby rivers to improve container transport.

A total of 174.6 kilometers of rivers will be spruced up by the end of 2010. By that time they will meet demands for container shipment, and will be linked to major ports like Yangshan Deep-Water Port and Waigaoqiao Port, said officials with the city's Port Administration Bureau.

The clean-up campaign began earlier this week on the Zhaojiagou River, a major waterway in Pudong.

The new river network should be capable of transporting containers from and to the Yangshan and Waigaoqiao ports and shipping construction materials for the building of the Lingang New City, the support area for the Yangshan Port.

In addition, the rivers will be linked to the Beijing-Hangzhou Canal, China's longest artificial waterway extending 1,794 kilometers and running through six provinces and municipalities in eastern and northern China.

The linkage will link the city's waterways to major rivers in Zhejiang and Jiangsu provinces.

"Shanghai's current inner river transportation doesn't play the role it deserves due to substandard river networks," said Xu Peixin, director of the port authority. "Clearing up and upgrading the rivers is part of the city's plan to build itself into an international shipping hub."

The city now has 200 inner waterways extending 2,138 kilometers.

The waterways carried 750,000 ships last year, containing 181 million tons of cargo. The shipments doubled the annual freight carried by Huning Railway, a major rail line linking Shanghai and Nanjing.