With the advent of the “New Canal Era,” Sichuan, known as the “Province of a Thousand Rivers,” is poised to fully break through its water transport bottlenecks. Within three years, it will invest 21 billion yuan to connect major inland rivers such as the Yangtze River, Jialing River, Min River, and Jinsha River, establishing a seamless and interconnected water transport system.
On November 23, Sichuan released the “Three-Year Action Plan for Concentrated Efforts in Shipping Revitalization and Development ‘Smoothing a River’ (2025-2027)” (hereinafter referred to as the “Action Plan”). By 2027, breakthroughs will be made in eliminating “bottleneck points” and “blockage points” in waterways. Significant results will be achieved in upgrading the Yangtze River’s standard, improving the efficiency of the Jialing River, ensuring the smooth flow of the Min River, connecting the Jinsha River, and systematically renovating the Qu River and Fu River, realizing the goals of “dual improvement, triple growth, and one reduction.”
Sichuan province currently has 176 navigable rivers, 147 navigable lakes and reservoirs, and a navigable mileage of 10,500 kilometers, ranking fourth in China and first in the western region. The mileage of Class IV and above waterways reaches 1,892 kilometers. The province has 18 ports and 403 productive cargo berths, with port cargo throughput capacity of 103.91 million tons and container throughput capacity of 2.5 million TEUs.
However, the development of Sichuan’s inland water transport lags behind; it is large but not strong. Waterway freight volume accounts for only 2.95% of the total societal freight volume, which is 22.6% lower than Hubei Province (ranked 6th nationally), 3.9% lower than Jiangxi Province (ranked 9th nationally), and 13.4% lower than Chongqing Municipality (ranked 12th nationally). Its position within the comprehensive transportation system is continuously weakening, becoming a noticeable shortcoming in building a strong transportation province.
Furthermore, waterway accessibility and smoothness are insufficient. The proportion of high-grade waterways is relatively low, accounting for only 8.1% of the total navigable mileage; approximately 80% of the national high-grade waterway construction has not yet met standards. The “intestinal obstruction” phenomenon is severe, with obstructive dams and gates accounting for 31% of high-grade waterways. There are also bottleneck constraints such as low traffic capacity in the Jingkou section of the Jialing River and insufficient capacity of the Three Gorges channel.
Ding Renzhong, Deputy Leader of the Macro Group of the Sichuan Provincial Party Committee and Government Decision-Making Consultation Committee and professor at Southwestern University of Finance and Economics, told Yicai that the comprehensive transportation system includes not only high-speed rail and aviation but also water transport, which is an important component. The advantage of water transport is its large capacity and low cost, which is incomparable to other modes of transport. Precisely for this reason, some provinces are currently vigorously promoting canal planning and construction.
Ding Renzhong stated that Sichuan has numerous rivers, making the development of water transport crucial. To transport large industrial products, Sichuan once mobilized provincial resources to build a Heavy Haul Road to transport heavy equipment produced in Deyang to the Leshan Port for shipment via water. Now, with accelerated industrialization, it is the right time to develop water transport. Sichuan is determined to develop water transport on a large scale.
In 2023, Sichuan issued the “Sichuan Province Inland Water Transport Development Plan (2023-2035),” aiming to build 5 outbound channels by 2035, with the mileage of Class III and above high-grade waterways reaching 2,160 kilometers, and the coverage rate of high-grade waterways for prefecture-level administrative regions reaching 57%. The main trunk of the Yangtze River will permit year-round passage of ships over 3,000 tons, while the Jinsha River, Min River, Jialing River, Qu River, and Fu River will permit year-round passage of ships over 1,000 tons.
In 2024, Sichuan issued the “Sichuan Province Water Transport Quality and Volume Doubling Action Plan (2024-2028),” proposing 21 specific measures. It aims to achieve a waterway freight volume exceeding 100 million tons, waterway cargo turnover exceeding 60 billion ton-kilometers, rail-water intermodal container throughput exceeding 100,000 TEUs, long-distance freight volume exceeding 36 million tons, and freight ship capacity exceeding 2.8 million deadweight tons by 2028, all doubling compared to 2023.
Earlier this year, the Sichuan Provincial Transportation Work Conference identified five major action plans for the year, one of which is implementing the “Smoothing a River” shipping revitalization and development action. Following the development strategy of “upgrading the Yangtze River, improving the efficiency of the Jialing River, ensuring the smooth flow of the Min River, and connecting the Jinsha River,” resources will be concentrated to make breakthroughs in overcoming shipping constraints on the Min River, Jialing River, Jinsha River, etc., using key points to drive overall progress in revitalizing Sichuan’s water transport.
The effects of these policy measures are already apparent. According to the Sichuan Provincial Shipping and Maritime Affairs Management Service Center, in the first three quarters of this year, provincial water transport completed a freight volume of 46.07 million tons, cargo turnover of 26.61 billion ton-kilometers, port throughput of 30.397 million tons, and port container throughput of 295,500 TEUs, representing year-on-year increases of 21.65%, 34.77%, 17.78%, and 14.18% respectively, all achieving “double-digit” growth.
The “Action Plan” specifies that planned investment for 2025-2027 will total 21 billion yuan. This includes 14.8 billion yuan for waterway construction, 5.5 billion yuan for port construction, and 700 million yuan for the construction of collection and distribution highways (railways). Funding sources primarily consist of three parts: seeking 6 billion yuan in central funds (including ultra-long-term special government bonds), accounting for 28.6%; 1.8 billion yuan in provincial fiscal funds, accounting for 8.6%; 1.6 billion yuan raised by city and county governments, accounting for 7.6%; and 11.6 billion yuan raised by project owners, accounting for 55.2%.
Through these investment plans, major “bottleneck points” such as the Wudongde, Baihetan, and Xiluoda dam sections on the Jinsha River; Zhangkan and Banqiao on the Min River; Liangtan and Sijiutan on the Qu River; and Sanxing on the Fu River will be eliminated. Major “blockage points” such as the Sichuan section of the Yangtze River, the Xiangjiaba dam section of the Jinsha River, the Yibin section of the Min River, and the Jingkou section of the Jialing River will be resolved. An additional 258 kilometers of high-grade waterways will meet standards, raising the compliance rate to over 70%. The Sichuan section of the Yangtze River will be navigable for 3,000-ton ships; the Sichuan section of the Jialing River will allow efficient passage for 500-ton ships; 1,000-ton ships will reach Leshan directly via the Min River; and regular passage of ships over 3,000 tons will be achieved in the reservoir areas from Panzhihua to Shuifu on the Jinsha River, basically achieving ship /lockage connectivity.
The “Action Plan” specifies that by 2027, the goals of “dual improvement, triple growth, and one reduction” will be achieved, namely: improvement in waterway compliance rate and guarantee rate; growth in ship capacity, enterprise scale, and cargo turnover; and reduction in transportation and logistics costs. An integrated ecosystem of the “Three Networks” (Channel Network, Logistics Network, Digital Network) for water transport—characterized by internal smoothness and external connectivity, supply-demand matching, and scientific efficiency—will accelerate its formation, effectively supporting the construction of a strong transportation province.
