The total investment is estimated to be 78.4 billion yuan
In view of the current predicament in the field of water transportation, Hubei is planning to make big moves.
Recently, at the 13th Central China Expo Central Investment Promotion Conference, Hubei Provincial Governor Wang Zhonglin revealed that Hubei should do a good job in upgrading the hub and accelerate the promotion of the Three Gorges Water Transport New Channel, Jinghan Canal and other hub projects.
In addition, Shao Xinyu, Vice Governor of Hubei Province, recently gave a detailed introduction to the Ministry of Transport when the Ministry of Transport signed a strategic cooperation agreement with Hubei on four important projects such as the preliminary demonstration of the Jinghan Canal plan.
Located in the middle reaches of the Yangtze River, Hubei is the province with the longest main stream of the Yangtze River, and the waterway freight volume ranks first in the middle and upper reaches of the Yangtze River, but it has been plagued by "troubles" in recent years.
According to Hubei official media reports, at present, the Yangtze River above the Three Gorges hub and below Wuhan have reached 10,000-ton waterways, but the section from Wuhan to Yichang can only meet the perennial navigation of 5,000-ton ships, and even only 3,000-ton during the dry season. In order to solve this problem, since 2015, a team of experts in Hubei has proposed the construction of the Jinghan Canal project. During the two sessions of the National People's Congress this year, "accelerating the preliminary work of the Jinghan Canal" became the suggestion of the whole delegation of Hubei.
In the above context, Hubei is currently pushing forward the construction of the Three Gorges Water Transport New Channel and the Jinghan Canal.
Unblocking "intestinal obstruction"
The Yangtze River is a well-deserved golden waterway on the mainland. According to the data, the Yangtze River only has a cargo volume of about 3.88 billion tons a year. In addition, the land-sea corridors of the Yangtze River Economic Belt account for about 40% of the country's land area, population and GDP.
As a major water transport province, Hubei has benefited a lot from it over the years, but with the continuous increase in cargo volume, bottlenecks have gradually emerged.
It is understood that the design capacity of the Three Gorges Dam is 100 million tons a year, but since it was put into operation, its cargo volume has been increasing, exceeding 100 million tons for the first time in 2011, reaching the design capacity 19 years ahead of schedule. In 2023, the shipping throughput of the Three Gorges Hub will reach 174 million tons, a year-on-year increase of 8.77%, setting a new record high.
"The current design sluice volume is lower than that of the Three Gorges Dam, and even the Yangzhou Grand Canal is much larger than it." Huang Jie, a professor at the Grand Canal Research Institute of Yangzhou University, told China News Weekly.
According to official data, in 2022, the Yangzhou section of the Beijing-Hangzhou Canal will pass 373 million tons of ships, twice the volume of the Three Gorges locks, and the cargo volume will reach 300 million tons.
Wang Yanghong, former director of the Hubei Provincial Department of Transportation, once told the media: "There are more than 1,600 ships waiting for the lock every day in the upstream and downstream of the Three Gorges Dam on the Yangtze River, and the longest waiting time is one month. ”
Peng Zhimin, a former counselor of the Hubei provincial government and a researcher at the Hubei Academy of Social Sciences, told China News Weekly that the Yangtze River shipping volume has grown very fast in recent years, far exceeding the original expectations. From the 50s to the 80s of the 20th century, when the Three Gorges Dam was designed, the freight volume of the Three Gorges section of the Yangtze River increased from more than 1 million tons to more than 3 million tons, and it took 30 years to more than double. With this water conservancy hub flooding all the reefs and rapids in the Three Gorges section, the Three Gorges waterway jumped from being navigable at night to a golden waterway with wide rivers and deep waters, calm winds and waves, and the Three Gorges reservoir area and upstream shipping ushered in a "blowout" development, and many goods were "changed to land and water", which not only reached the design capacity of the Three Gorges Locks 19 years ahead of schedule, but also quickly became a "bottleneck" restricting the further role of the golden waterway. These are new problems encountered in the course of development, and targeted measures need to be taken to solve them.
In his view, the new Three Gorges water transport channel is of great significance for giving full play to the role of the golden waterway of the Yangtze River and smoothing the logistics of the east and west.
After the new Three Gorges water transport channel was put on the agenda, many industry experts predicted that after the completion of this channel, the cargo volume of the Yangtze River shipping would usher in a new "blowout", and in this case, another major problem in Hubei water transport emerged.
One of the more prominent bottlenecks is the waterway from Wuhan to Jingzhou, the shallowest place from Wuhan to Jingzhou is only 3 meters ~ 3.7 meters, this depth will limit many large ships.
"This section of the channel is more curved, the sediment accumulation is more serious, and the traffic capacity is limited." Peng Zhimin said.
At the same time, the Yangtze River downstream from Wuhan to Anqing in Anhui Province reaches a 6-meter channel that can be navigated by ships of 5,000 to 10,000 tons. This means that below Wuhan can go 10,000 tons, Yichang can go up to 10,000 tons, but Jingzhou can only go 3,000 to 5,000 tons of ships.
In the 2023 Hubei Provincial Government Work Report, the Jinghan Canal project is prominently listed. The Jinghan Canal is from Jingzhou to Wuhan, using the original river channel and the newly dug part of the river to build an artificial river 230 kilometers long, 8 meters deep and 90 meters wide, which can carry 10,000 tons of ships.
During the two sessions of the National People's Congress this year, the Hubei delegation suggested that the relevant state units should be requested to start the pre-feasibility study of the Jinghan Canal project as soon as possible. The Jinghan Canal project starts from Songzikou in Songzi City, Jingzhou City, and ends at the mouth of the Dongjing River in Wuhan City, with a total investment of 78.4 billion yuan.
Schematic diagram of Jinghan Canal Figure/Hubei Satellite TV video screenshot
According to the information disclosed so far, the project will "cut and straighten" between the "V" shaped Yangtze River channel from Jingzhou to Wuhan Jiuqu Ileum, and "cut off and straighten" to rebuild a horizontal canal.
According to relevant estimates, after the completion of the Jinghan Canal project, it is expected to shorten the voyage through the Yangtze River channel by 260 kilometers, reduce the transportation time by about 14 hours, and the logistics cost of water transportation will be greatly reduced.
In addition, some industry experts said that once the Jinghan Canal is completed, the shipping energy level of coastal port cities such as Jingzhou in Hubei Province will be greatly improved, and related supporting facilities and port industrial parks will also continue to rise.
Wu Chuanqing, deputy dean of the China Institute of Development Strategy and Planning at Wuhan University, said in an interview with the media: "After the Jinghan Canal is unblocked, it will help promote the integrated development of the upper, middle and lower reaches of the Yangtze River, and promote the integrated development of the Chengdu-Chongqing urban agglomeration, the urban agglomeration in the middle reaches of the Yangtze River, and the Yangtze River Delta urban agglomeration." ”
Expert: There are still many factors to consider
In the eyes of many people in the industry, the construction of the Jinghan Canal, from the perspective of economic benefits, has a very good prospect, but if you want to start construction, you must consider many factors, you need to "make bold assumptions, carefully verify", ecological protection and coordination of many aspects of the interests of the issue, is one of the extremely important links.
The first phase of the South-to-North Water Diversion Project is designed to divert 9.5 billion cubic meters of water per year from the Han River, the longest tributary of the Yangtze River, and in order to replenish the water volume in the middle and lower reaches of the Han River, the state has implemented the "Diversion of the River to Han" project, which diverts about 3 billion cubic meters of water from the main stream of the Yangtze River every year. The second phase of the South-to-North Water Diversion Project is about to start again, and the water volume of the Yangtze River still needs to meet the growing production and living needs of the surrounding people in principle. Some industry experts admitted to China News Weekly.
According to data released by China South-to-North Water Diversion Group Co., Ltd. in June this year, up to now, nearly 65 billion cubic meters of water has been diverted from the middle route of the South-to-North Water Diversion Project, directly benefiting more than 108 million people, and has become an important water source for 26 large and medium-sized cities along the route, playing a significant role.
It is understood that the first phase of the middle line of the South-to-North Water Diversion Project is a large-scale water conservancy project that diverts water from the Danjiangkou Reservoir in the middle and upper reaches of the Hanjiang River, the largest tributary of the Yangtze River, flows through Henan and Hebei, and finally arrives in Beijing and Tianjin.
Yu Qihui, deputy chief engineer of the Yangtze River Water Conservancy Commission, once told the media that the first phase of the middle route of the South-to-North Water Diversion Project has not only alleviated the water pressure in the northern water-receiving areas, but also led to a continuous decline in the water source guarantee rate of the Danjiangkou Reservoir.
At the same time, the construction of the Han-Ji-Wei River diversion project needs to store water, and the high-quality development of the Hanjiang River basin also needs water, which requires water diversion from the Yangtze River to supplement the water resources of the Hanjiang River and ensure that the first phase of the middle route of the South-to-North Water Diversion Project continues to play a role. The second phase of the middle line project is the implementation of the project of diverting water from the Yangtze River to the Han River.
According to data released by the Ministry of Water Resources, the planning target for the second phase of the middle route of the South-to-North Water Diversion Project is expected to be 13 billion cubic meters of water per year. These factors undoubtedly need to be taken into account.
In addition, once the Jinghan Canal is built, how to coordinate the interests of the provinces will become a key link.
The middle reaches of the Yangtze River generally stretch from Yichang Port, where the Three Gorges Dam is located, to Anhui Province, and mainly flow through the three provinces of Hubei, Hunan and Jiangxi.
In 2023, six of the three provinces in the middle reaches of the Yangtze River will handle more than 80 million tons of cargo annually. Among them, Jiujiang Port ranked first, with a cargo throughput of more than 200 million tons in 2023, which is far ahead. Wuhan Port (144 million tons), Yichang (140 million tons) and Yueyang Port (104 million tons) ranked 2~4 in the middle reaches of the Yangtze River. Located at the confluence of Dongting Lake and the Yangtze River, Chenglingji Port in Yueyang, Hunan Province is an important material distribution center in the middle reaches of the Yangtze River.
"With the construction of the Jinghan Canal, the distance of the main stream of the Yangtze River will indeed be greatly shortened, and the traffic capacity will continue to increase. However, the existing important waterway of the Yangtze River, from Jingzhou to Wuhan, including the Yangtze River shipping in the whole of Hunan, needs to pass through the relevant ports in Yueyang. Once the Jinghan Canal is completed, many ships may no longer need to pass through these ports, and they may face a significant reduction in traffic volume, which will greatly affect their development. The aforementioned expert told China News Weekly.
It is understood that Yueyang is the only Yangtze River port in Hunan. In 2023, the container throughput of Yueyang Port will exceed 1.2 million TEUs for the first time, becoming the third million-TEU port in the middle and upper reaches of the Yangtze River, filling the gap of non-million-TEU container ports in Hunan Province.
In addition, in order to expand and strengthen the modern logistics industry, Yueyang is also constantly strengthening investment in the construction of ports, and has opened a number of multimodal transport routes, such as the construction of "Central China, North China - Hubei major ports - Yueyang Chenglingji Port - Guangzhou Nansha, Shenzhen Port sea-rail intermodal transport center - import and export" of a foreign trade channel.
In the opinion of the above-mentioned experts, if the Jinghan Canal is really to be built, the above problems need to be properly handled.
It is worth mentioning that recently, the preliminary design of the second phase of the waterway improvement project of the Jingjiang River section in the middle reaches of the Yangtze River undertaken by the design company of the Yangtze River Planning and Design Institute has been approved by the Ministry of Transport, marking that the 4.5-meter water depth waterway system improvement of the Jingjiang River section is about to enter the implementation stage. This project means that the capacity of the existing waterway from Wuhan to Jingzhou will be greatly increased.
Author: Zhao Yue
Editor: Liu Jingjing Editor-in-charge: Liu Liang