BEIJING, June 4 (Xinhua) -- Premier Zhu Rongji yesterday stressed that construction quality is of life-and-death importance to the Three Gorges Project. Addressing a plenary meeting of the Three Gorges Project Construction Committee (TGPCC) under the State Council, the premier urged the builders to undertake their historic mission with a lofty sense of responsibility.
Zhu, also head of the Three Gorges Project Construction Committee, added that the resettlement of local people from the area of China's largest hydro-power project to other provinces and cities should be further encouraged, while efforts should still be made to readjust the industrial structures of the enterprises removed from the dam area so as to realize co-ordinated development in economic and social aspects as well as in ecological and environmental construction.
Wu Bangguo, vice-premier and deputy head of the TGPCC, and Qian Zhengying, leader of the project's quality supervision group, also attended the session.
It discussed the achievements and progress made since the project was launched in 1993 and concluded that the quality of construction is guaranteed.
By the end of April, the Three Gorges Project had completed the main-frame earth and stone work totalling 146.76 million cubic metres, and 16.12 million cubic metres of concrete pouring work.
So far, some 320,000 people living in the dam area have been resettled, and 18.19 million square metres of housing have been built for them.
Some 690 enterprises have been either relocated or closed down for various reasons, such as bankruptcy or failure to meet the State's environmental standards.
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