Construction of a container terminal has begun in the city of Wanzhou in southwest China's Chongqing Municipality in the area of the gigantic Three Gorges Dam, said He Shengping, deputy director of the Chongqing Municipal Communication Commission, which takes charge of the terminal project at Wanzhou, on Tuesday.

The new terminal project with a designed handling capability of 400,000 TEUs a year at the cost of some one billion yuan (about 120 million US dollars), will, upon completion, be the largest container terminal zone in the Three Gorges dam area.

When the first phase project is finished, the terminal will have an annual handling capability of 200,000 TEUs, so that Wanzhou's capability of collecting and distributing freight will be great improved, making it a major distribution center for the region.

The Three Gorges project, to be situated at the middle reaches of the mighty Yangtze, China's biggest and longest river, will eventually have a mammoth hydroelectric power station with a total installed generating capacity of 18.2 million kw, the largest in the world. Operating at a water level of 175 meters, the huge dam project will also facilitate navigation and flood control on the Yangtze.

The construction of the project, launched in 1994, is to be undertaken in three phases and be completed in 2009.