Power generated by China's Three Gorges Dam, the world's biggest hydroelectric project, will help alleviate a severe electricity shortage in the booming Yangtze River delta downstream, a construction official said Wednesday.

A female worker walks near the Three Gorges Dam under construction near Yichang, along the Yangtze river in central China, Wednesday, May 17, 2006. [AP]

Reporters visiting the dam on the Yangtze's middle reaches saw workers putting the final touches on the wall of the gargantuan structure, which stretches 2.309 kilometers (1.43 miles) across the river at a width of 15 meters (49 feet).

The wall has already risen to its full 185-meter (607-foot) height, and less than 1,000 cubic meters (35,310 cubic feet) of reinforced concrete remain to be poured out of a total of 16.1 million cubic meters (568.5 million cubic feet), officials said. Work is due to be completed within weeks, about nine months ahead of schedule.

Project manager Wang Xiaomao said the 84.7 billion kilowatt hours of power that the Three Gorges Dam will generate each year will drive China's economy for years to come. The power would be used in Shanghai and other cities in eastern China's Yangtze delta region that now face energy shortages, Wang said.

"This will play a very important role in the economic growth in that area," Wang said.

Factories in the area have been forced to suspend or stagger production in recent years amid electricity shortages.

The Three Gorges' 26 generator turbines and other equipment are due to be fully installed by 2009.

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