The route alteration, at the Altun Mountains and Lop Nur regions in northwest China's Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region, will require an additional investment of 150 million yuan (18 million US dollars), the overseas edition of the People's Daily reported Monday.

The Altun and Lop Nur region has long been the homeland for pure-bred wild two-humped camels, an extremely rare species. A recent survey showed only 730-880 such camels exist in the world, making it even more endangered than the giant panda.

The United Nations Environment Program and the State Environmental Protection Administration have allocated 810,000 US dollars to protect this rare species and its living environment.

The West-to-East Gas Pipeline Project, one of four key projectsin western China, is designed to transfer over 12 billion cubic meters of natural gas annually from the Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region in northwest China to Shanghai Municipality and other areasat the Yangtze River Delta in east China.

During the first stage of the project, the 4,200-km-long pipeline will wind its way through eight autonomous regions and provinces before entering Shanghai. It is expected to cost a totalof 120 billion yuan (about 14.45 billion US dollars).

The project was originally due to cut through the two-humped camel protection zone. However, after field investigations, experts decided to shift the route northward.

(People's Daily December 17, 2002)