With a budget of about $89.25 million, the project requires a construction of a navigable deep-water channel capable of accommodating ships of 250,000 dead weight tonnages, Tianjin municipal government officials said.
Workers have so far completed 43.3 per cent of the project's workload, Xinhua news agency reported.
Water in the projected channel can be 19.5 meters deep upon its completion late this year, which will enable Tianjin to handle all ships that sail into the Bohai Sea, the sources said.
Situated at the northwestern edge of the Bohai Sea, Tianjin boasts an alluvial coast and the offshore areas are shallow and full of alluvial soil.
And the efforts to dredge the alluvial coast began at the turn of last century and have borne fruits. Currently, Tianjin only has a deep-water channel accommodating 150,000-DWT ships.
Tianjin port now serves as an outlet for goods from the central and western parts of China. It handled 250 million tonnes of cargo and 5.9 million TEU of containers last year.
The port, which has established trade ties with more than 160 countries and regions in the world, hopes to handle 300 million tonnes of cargo and 10 million TEU of containers by 2010.
