China will allocate 18 billion yuan ($2.7 billion) from 2011 to 2015 to build deepwater channels on the lower reaches of the Yangtze River, according to local authorities.

Chen Yuanhua, Deputy Director of the Nanjing Yangtze River Waterway Bureau, said the project would allow 50,000-ton vessels to sail from the estuary of the Yangtze River all the way up to Nanjing, capital of east China's Jiangsu Province.

Major construction work, starting at the end of this year, is expected to be completed by 2015.