(December 29, 2005) Project officials still need to raise US$7.2 billion to complete construction of the world’s biggest dam.

Beijing: Officials at China’s Three Gorges Dam have cut their estimate for the project’s total cost to 180 billion yuan (US$21.7 billion) from their previous estimate of CNY203.9 billion (US$24.6 billion), the Economic Daily reports. By the end of 2001, China had already spent CNY73.1 billion (US$8.8 billion) on the massive hydroelectric power and flood control project, which has been under construction for 10 years. Yet the project still needs to raise another CNY60 billion (US$7.2 billion) in funds to complete construction, the report says. It has already raised CNY11 billion (US$1.3 billion) through bond issues and CNY30 billion (US$3.6 billion) in soft loans from the China Development Bank. An additional CNY70 billion (US$8.5 billion) has been allocated to the project from a national hike in electricity prices, along with CNY10 billion (US$1.2 billion) in profits from the existing Gezhouba power plant downstream from the dam.

Dow Jones, December 29, 2005