The plants, to be built along the Jinsha River on the upper reaches of the Yangtze, would be part of China's drive to find alternative and cleaner energy sources to coal and oil to help fuel economic growth, the paper said.
It quoted the China Yangtze Three Gorges Project Development Corporation, which is building the controversial Three Gorges Damn, as saying it would spend one billion yuan ($120 million) on the initial development of the projects this year.
Construction of two giant dams to prepare for power generation was expected to start before 2005, it said.
Building the power plants was also part of China's bid to transmit electricity from its resource-rich but underdeveloped west to the more developed east, it said.
Analysts said the latest projects earmarked for the mighty river, also home to the Three Gorges Project that critics fear could cause severe pollution and silting by retarding the river's flow, could stir controversies of their own.
While construction of the planned dams was likely to involve the resettlement of fewer people than the one million already moved out of the more densely populated Three Gorges Project area, the environmental impact remained a concern, they said.
There were also some worries that the new projects could face major commercial challenges.
Source: China Daily, February 13. 2003
