GOVERNMENT of Nantong city in Jiangsu province is to invest CNY40 million (US$6.43 million) on a high-standard "informatised" management system along the 70-kilometre Nantong section of the Lianyungang-Shanghai navigational channel, developing it into the first intelligent navigational channel in the province, Xinhua reports.
The "informatising" project will add eight intelligent systems in dispatching and piloting through the Nantong section. Surveillance facilities will also be installed at major terminal service areas along the channel and congestion-prone points together with buoys. The intelligent equipment will collect real-time information of the navigational facilities and the vessels, analyse data automatically and send out warnings.
The Lianyungang-Shanghai navigational channel started construction in 2010 and is to be completed and commence operation by the end of 2013. It has a capacity of 1,000 tonnes.