At a special session convened in Beijing early last month, the Three Gorges Project Construction Committee (TGPCC) decided to raise the reservoir an additional four metres from the current level of 135 metres by the end of this month, the Three Gorges Project Daily reports.

The project’s policy-making body also decided at the meeting to fill the reservoir to 156 metres in 2006, one year earlier than planned, the newspaper says.

News of these unexpected revisions to the long-established project timetable has been released in stages. Three Gorges Probe learned of this month’s four-metre rise from a Sept. 26 China News Service report, while the Three Gorges Project Daily revealed on Oct. 10 the plan to raise the reservoir to 156 metres in 2006.

Premier Wen Jiabao, who is also director of the TGPCC, urged project officials to pay special attention in the third phase of construction to quality control and safety, resettlement, environmental protection and reservoir management.

Workers in Zigui county have been busy surveying the reservoir and erecting 300 large steel signs indicating the 156-metre level, the Web site of the Changjiang Water Resources Commission says. Some even gave up their weeklong National Day holiday to devote themselves to the task.