Energy-thirsty China, already involved in the world's largest hydropower project, will block a river in the southwest for a 24.3 billion yuan ($2.9 billion) power plant, the Xinhua news agency said.

The Longtan power plant, the largest in the country after the Three Gorges Dam, would have installed capacity of 4,200 megawatts.

Workers would stem the mighty Hongshui river in the southwestern province of Guangxi early in November.

"The blocking will be a milestone, marking the turning point from the basic digging period to dam-building period," said Long Xianjin, deputy general manager of the Longtan Hydropower Development Co, as saying.

Some 6,000 residents in the dam area would be relocated.

China's surging economy is gasping for electricity. Consumption has been growing at about 16 percent annually, but blackouts have plagued more than half China's provinces this year.

Engineers blocked the Yangtze at the Three Gorges Dam in June, starting to fill the reservoir for the US$25 billion project.

Hundreds of thousands of people have been relocated from the area around the reservoir, which will swallow empty villages, cities, factories and hospitals.

The project began in 1993 and is expected to be completed by 2009.

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