Containers are unloaded from a freighter at a port in Huzhou, East China's Zhejiang province. [Photo provided to chinadaily.com.cn]

Huzhou in East China's Zhejiang province recently released an ambitious plan to construct a world-class inland river port during the 14th Five-Year-Plan (2021-2025) period.

According to the plan released by the Huzhou Port and Navigation Management Center, the city aims to build a 200-plus-kilometer-long waterway that is able to accommodate 1,000-tonnage vessels by the end of 2025. 

By this time, the city's container throughput via inland rivers is targeted to reach 1 million TEUs (twenty-foot equivalent unit), doubling that in 2020.

In addition, efforts to tackle pollution around ports will be strengthened to ensure that no local ships will discharge water pollutants into rivers.

This year, Huzhou has set the goal of increasing its cargo and container throughput at ports to 120 million metric tons and 580,000 TEUs respectively.

It will also allocate a fund worth 776 million yuan ($119.38 million) to upgrade its water transportation facilities, of which 250 million yuan will be used to construct ports, as the city plans to add another 10 500-tonnage berths this year, while 441 million yuan will be employed to build waterways.

Within the year, Huzhou will construct a shore power supervision platform as well as a pollution monitoring center for ships and ports.

A total of 20 sets of smart shore power facilities will be built, with the aim to increase electricity consumption to more than 600,000 kilowatt-hours.