Recently, a high-quality development meeting on water transport in Anhui was held in Hefei City. Experts and academics engaged in academic discussion concerning how to tap Anhui’s unique strengths for Chinese modernization and the new development paradigm to accelerate the high-quality development of water transport. Zhang Shuguang and Shan Xiangqian, Vice Governors of the province attended the meeting and made a speech.
Nie Aiguo, head of Department of Transport of Anhui Province,said that in recent years, Anhui has been accelerating the transportation network development, focusing on the development of “Water Transport Anhui” and striving to build a “strong port on the golden waterway.” By the end of 2022, Anhui's inland waterway navigable mileage reached 5,775 kilometers, including 1,831 kilometers of grade IV or above main waterways, and a major waterway network linking rivers to the ocean has been formed. Anhui’s ports have a total of 844 productive berths, including 16 berths capable of handling 10,000-ton class vessels. The province operates 24,500 vessels with a net tonnage of 55.84 million and has 169,000 inland sailors, accounting for 16.8% of the country’s total inland sailors.
From January to November in 2023, Ports in Anhui has handled 613 million tons of freight；container throughput touched 2.2778 million TEU；foreign trade via waterways has accomplished 16.4279 million tons; cargo in ship has accounted for 35.59% of the total transportation volume. Additionally, the intermodal transportation of containers by rail and water (sea) reached 260 thousand TEUs, showing a 30% year-on-year increase.
On September 16, 2023, the Jianghuai Canal, with a total length of 354.9 kilometers, began its trial operation, allowing navigation of vessels up to 2000 tons. The Jianghuai Canal is connected to many waterways, such as the upstream Shaying River, the downstream Wushen Canal, Caizi Lake, by which the second north-south water transportation artery in China was formed. The artery traverses the provinces of Henan, Anhui, and Jiangsu, running parallel to the Beijing-Hangzhou Grand Canal, and establishing the main framework of the well-shaped main artery of the Yangtze River Delta.
Anhui will firmly establish an open mindset of "developing towards the sea and sailing out with borrowed ships", amplify strengths, address weaknesses, continuously increase the construction of water transportation facilities. Anhui will implement 40 water transportation projects with a total investment of nearly 60 billion yuan, accelerate the construction of a modern water transportation system that is safe, convenient, efficient, and environmentally friendly, accelerate the construction of Maritime Anhui, and promote high-quality development of water transportation throughout the province.
Source from: China transportation news