More than 116,000 people in Chongqing moved out of the dam area of the Three Gorges Power Project last year to make way for its construction.

Chongqing allocated more than 5 billion yuan to build new houses with a total floor space of 3.8 million square meters for rehousing last year, Liu Fuyin, director of the Chongqing Resettlement Bureau, said at a recent municipal people's congress.

By the end of last year, the city had spent 16.7 billion yuan to resettle 433,000 people living in the dam area.

Chongqing is at the end of the 600-kilometer-long Three Gorges reservoir, which is expected to begin generating electricity on June 1, 2003.

Under the construction plan, water will rise to 135 meters by June next year. Residents now living below the proposed water line must move out before this happens. To date, 67 percent of the occupants and 84 percent of the businesses in the area have been resettled, Liu said.

The Three Gorges Power Project, launched in 1993, will be completed in 2009 at a cost of 100 billion yuan.

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