China's gigantic Three Gorges Project is taking another step toward completion, with its phase-two multibillion-dollar project due to begin operation on June 1.

According to the official schedule, a source with the project said on Wednesday, the dam gate will be closed on June 1 and, by June 15 the water level in the reservoir is expected to reach 135 meters.

After a decade of huge investment from the state and arduous, incessant work by Chinese scientists, technicians and dam builders, one of the world's biggest construction projects will begin to take shape.

The increased water level will create a fall of 65 meters above the river surface, laying the foundation for hydro-electric power generation.

Two hydropower-generating units, each with a capacity of 700,000 kilowatts, will go into operation in August and another two will start in October. And a total of 5.5 billion kilowatts/hours of electricity will be turned out in the Three Gorges dam project area this year.

In the next three years or so, the project will deliver safe and clean hydro-electricity to Shanghai Municipality and eight provinces in central, east and south China.

After the flooding is completed, the 6.4-kilometer-long ship lock will begin trials from June 16. And the shipping, which has been banned for the last 60 days, will resume.

Officials with the Three Gorges Project Development Corporation said that a huge, magnificent lake would form behind the gigantic dam, extending some 600 kilometers upstream, almost reaching Chongqing municipality.

The drastic rise of the water level will widen the channel, smooth the water flow and restrain the menace of torrential streams and hidden shoals, making the risky river section between Yichang and Chongqing far easier to navigate.

The towering concrete cofferdam wall now stands at a height of 140 meters, five meters higher than the planned water level, which will leave more than two billion cubic meters of reservoir capacity to regulate the water level during the flooding season.

As the construction of the dam project further progresses, the water level is expected to reach 156 meters by 2006 when its third-phrase construction is finished, extending the reservoir capacity for flood control to 11.08 billion cubic meters. The figure will proceed to go up to 22.15 billion cubic meters when the final post-flooding water level of the reservoir will reach 175 meters by the year 2009.

The construction of the Three Gorges dam project, which was first launched in 1993, is expected to be completed in 2009, when 26 power-generating units with a combined capacity of 18.2 kilowatts will be operational.

More than 600,000 local residents have already been relocated to make way for the dam project, with nearly half a million local farmers and villagers yet to be displaced.

(Xinhua News Agency May 28, 2003)