The Chinese government will invest one billion yuan (US$120 million) in clearing shipping channels on the Yangtze River, China's longest, this year.

The investment, earmarked by the Yangtze River Waterway Bureau, would be spent on dredging and removal of rocks on ten stretches.

Meanwhile, a digital navigation system for the 300-kilometer stretch from Nanjing, capital of Jiangsu Province, down to Liuhekou, at the river mouth, would be completed and put into use this year, said Tang Guanjun, director of the bureau.

"The digital system, including an electronic course map and remote sensing of navigation markers, will help with navigation and waterway maintenance," Tang said.

The stretch will be the first on the Yangtze to have a digital system.

Last year, the bureau destroyed 848,000 cubic meters of rocks by blasting a 90-kilometer section near Chongqing, which greatly improved the navigation.

The maintenance of the 1,891-kilometer waterway from Chongqing down to Wuhu City in east China's Anhui Province last year, had increased the section's cargo transportation capability by nearly 70 million tons a year, the bureau said.

But in many sections of the river, shallow water or rocks still hindered transportation, the bureau said.

The 6,300-kilometer Yangtze River is a major transport link between west, central and east China.

Last year, 990 million tons of cargo were shipped on the river.

(Xinhua News Agency January 16, 2007)