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The move comes as Hubei seeks to explore the shipping potential of the Yangtze to make the port, which covers the cities of Wuhan, Huanggang and Ezhou, the shipping center for the middle reaches of the country's longest river.

Although the provincial government gave no exact figure for the full 10-year project, it said the investment between 2011 and 2015 would amount to 176.6 billion yuan.

The investment will help expand annual cargo throughput to 200 million tons and container throughput to 2 million twenty-foot equivalent units (TEUs) in 2015 from the current 100 million tons and 650,000 TEUs, it said.

The annual throughput is expected to increase to 240 million tons and 5 million TEUs in 2020.