China starts $170 billion Tibetan dam billed as world’s biggest hydropower scheme

China has begun building a five-station cascade on the Yarlung Zangbo river in Tibet, a $170 billion project that will dwarf the Three Gorges Dam, lift construction shares and alarm India, Bangladesh and environmental groups.

Work got under way on Monday after Premier Li Qiang hailed the venture as a “project of the century,” state news agency Xinhua said. Designed to generate 300 billion kWh a year—roughly the electricity Britain used last year—the complex will tap a 2,000-metre drop along a 50-kilometre stretch of the river before it becomes the Brahmaputra.

Chinese markets treated the announcement as fresh stimulus. The CSI Construction & Engineering Index jumped more than 4 % to a seven-month high, while shares in Power Construction Corporation of China and Arcplus Group hit their 10 % daily limit. Yields on long-dated government bonds rose as investors rotated into equities.

Huatai Securities told clients the build-out would lift demand for cement, tunnelling gear and civil explosives. Citi estimated that, assuming a decade-long schedule, annual spending could add about 120 billion yuan (around $16.5 billion) to gross domestic product.

Li said engineers must “place special emphasis on ecological conservation to prevent environmental damage.” However, non-governmental organisations warned of irreversible harm to one of the plateau’s most biodiverse regions, while experts noted the site’s seismic activity.

India and Bangladesh—downstream on the Brahmaputra—have already voiced concern that the dam could disrupt water supplies or heighten flood risks for millions of people. Beijing maintains the project will meet Tibet’s power needs and feed the national grid “without major downstream impact.”

The scheme is being overseen by the state-owned China Yajiang Group and is expected to begin feeding power to the grid in the 2030s. Officials have yet to say how many residents might be displaced, but the smaller Three Gorges project created nearly one million jobs and forced a similar number of relocations during its two-decade build-out.

Copied