(6) Multi-Million Dollar Contracts To Be Awarded For Three Gorges Dam
[CND 7/10/97] Chinese business sources said on Thursday that coveted
multi-million dollar contracts to provide the first 14 turbines and
generators for the Yangtze River's Three Gorges dam should be announced by
China by the end of the month, AFP reports. More than half of the 800
million dollar contract will go to foreign suppliers. Front runners
include an alliance between Voith and Siemens AG of Germany and a Canadian
subsidiary of the American General Electric Company, as well as
Anglo-French and Swiss-Norwegian consortiums.
Started in 1993, the controversial Three Gorges dam is the biggest
hydroelectric project in the world. At its completion in 2009, 26
turbines are expected to produce 18,200 megawatts of electricity. The dam
will also help regulate the flow of the Yangtze. But more than a million
people have been displaced by the dam and 42,000 acres of land will have
to flooded, bringing the project under fire from environmentalists who
fear social and ecological disaster. (Terry THOMPSON, Guochen WAN)