Two major century-defining projects have been launched! Southwest China is going all out to build transportation corridors.

Recently, two major century - long projects have made new progress.

Firstly, the construction of the new Three Gorges waterway has officially started. The total investment of this project reaches 77.2 billion yuan, and the construction period is 112 months.

Secondly, the Pinglu Canal has achieved full - line water flow, getting one step closer to official navigation. The total investment of this project is 72.7 billion yuan, and the construction period is 52 months.

These two super - projects, one located in Yichang, Hubei, and the other in Guangxi, both bring the most significant benefits to the southwest region.

The former clears the shipping bottleneck in the upper reaches of the Yangtze River, while the latter opens up the most convenient sea - going channel for the southwest region. The fact that multiple century - long projects are focused on the southwest region has profound implications.

01

Let's first look at the new Three Gorges waterway.

Simply put, this project involves digging a new channel on the left bank of the Three Gorges Project, which is equivalent to adding a new "water highway" to the Yangtze River, just like expanding from the previous "two - lane" to a "four - lane" road.

The existing Three Gorges Ship Lock was opened to navigation in 2003, but it had already reached its designed annual passing capacity of 100 million tons as early as 2011. This has put the Three Gorges Project in a state of long - term over - operation.

Currently, the average waiting time for passing through the lock has reached about 9 days. It's easy to imagine the impact on the logistics efficiency and cost between the upstream and downstream areas.

After the completion of the new channel, together with the capacity expansion and renovation of the Gezhouba Dam, the total passing capacity will be increased to 360 million tons, significantly alleviating the problem of "ship congestion".

Moreover, the new channel is designed with a greater water depth, which can support the passage of 10,000 - ton ships, twice that of the existing channel. Coupled with the subsequent channel regulation of the upper reaches of the Yangtze River, 10,000 - ton cargo ships are expected to reach Chongqing directly.

Although the project is located in Yichang, after the increase in the lock - passing flow, the status of Yichang as a waterway hub will be further enhanced.

However, the long - term benefits of the project mainly radiate to the provinces and municipalities in the upper reaches of the Yangtze River, such as Chongqing, Sichuan, Guizhou, and Yunnan. With the improvement of navigation efficiency, it will not only reduce the transportation costs of bulk commodities and industrial products in these regions but also create more convenient conditions for the development of port - related industries and the undertaking of industrial transfer in the areas along the river.

Therefore, it was the Sichuan - Chongqing area that had the highest expectations for this project before. This time, it can be said that their dream has finally come true.

02

Now, let's look at the Pinglu Canal.

This canal has also been in the planning for a long time and is the first canal project connecting rivers to the sea coordinated and constructed at the national level since the founding of the People's Republic of China. It solves the long - standing pain point of Guangxi having a coastline but no convenient "sea - reaching" channel and the structural problem of "Guangxi goods not using Guangxi ports", making Guangxi's status as a coastal province more well - deserved.

Benefiting from this, Guangxi can take advantage of this convenient condition to further expand and strengthen its sea - going economy. At the same time, Guangxi has proposed to promote the integrated development of ports, industries, and cities, coordinate the in - depth integration of channels, ports, industries, and cities, deepen the integrated development of Qinzhou, Beihai, and Fangchenggang, and accelerate the construction of a modern port - related new city.

In addition, Guangxi can better balance its relationship with the Greater Bay Area, enhance its development "autonomy", reduce passive "siphoning", and bring more "traffic" back to itself. On a larger scale, the Pinglu Canal opens up the nearest sea - going channel for the western region represented by the southwest.

Data shows that when goods from the southwest are transported through the Pinglu Canal to the sea, the inland navigation distance is shortened by more than 560 kilometers compared with that through the Port of Guangzhou, saving more than 5.2 billion yuan in freight costs annually.

In fact, this canal itself is a key project of the New Western Land - Sea Corridor. After its completion, the "new" feature of the New Western Land - Sea Corridor will be more fully reflected.

03

Therefore, these two super - projects can essentially be regarded as new opening - up channels for the entire southwest region.

The new Three Gorges channel breaks through the bottleneck of "poor connectivity" in the upper reaches of the Yangtze River; the Pinglu Canal alleviates the inconvenience of the southwest region being far from the sea.

Ultimately, they are all committed to providing better infrastructure support for the opening - up of the southwest region and are truly "century - long projects" that reshape the economic geography.

As some experts have pointed out, the Pinglu Canal will promote development through opening - up, build a modern industrial system with Guizhou characteristics, and promote the transformation of industrial development from an "inland resource - based" to an "open manufacturing - based" model.

In recent years, the construction achievements of the southwest region in the fields of high - speed railways, aviation, and expressways are obvious to all. For example, in terms of aviation, three of the top ten aviation cities in the country are located in the southwest: Chengdu, Chongqing, and Kunming.

However, water transportation remains a short - board that cannot be ignored.

Improving the efficiency of river - to - sea transportation through the new Three Gorges waterway and opening up the "shortest - distance, lowest - cost" sea - going channel through the Pinglu Canal are key measures to address this short - board, which are expected to effectively make up for the shortage of the southwest region in river - sea intermodal transportation.

Why the southwest region?

As is well - known, in the entire western region, the southwest region has relatively superior comprehensive location, transportation network, ecological environment, population size, and industrial foundation.

The implementation of these two century - long projects will help further unleash these advantages, add new impetus to the development vitality of the southwest region, and lay a more complete foundation for the accelerated development of the inland areas.

It is worth noting that this year's Government Work Report for the first time proposed: Implement the national industrial transfer and development improvement project and deepen cross - administrative - region cooperation. With the improvement of the conditions for connecting rivers to the sea, the space for the southwest region to undertake higher - level industrial transfer and even develop export - oriented industries will be further expanded.

In addition, the Outline of the 15th Five - Year Plan clearly states: Promote the construction of the national strategic hinterland and the backup of key industries, and build strategic industrial bases, material reserves, and infrastructure.

Considering these together, the profound meaning is not difficult to understand.

Together with the hydropower development project in the lower reaches of the Yarlung Zangbo River and the Sichuan - Tibet Railway that are currently under construction, at least four national - level super - projects have been planned or are directly beneficial to the southwest region.

In the past two decades, the rapid development of the southwest region has often been compared with that of other regions. In the next stage, with the superposition of multiple strategies, the regional development vitality of the southwest region is still worth looking forward to.

This article is from the WeChat official account "Western City Affairs", written by Western Jun, and published by 36Kr with authorization.