Three Gorges people mentioned it once again, but after repeated discussions and investigations, it was again postponed. On March 6, 1992, a feasibility report was presented at the 5th Session of the 7th National People's Congress (NPC) for discussion and resolution. On April 3 of that year, 2,633 NPC members, one-third of the whole body, voted for the Resolution on the Development of the Three Gorges Project, and this was unprecedented in the voting history of the People's Republic of China. The Three Gorges Project officially began on December 14, 1994. The Three Gorges Dam was constructed at Sandouping (), Yichang ()
Three Gorges Dam become safer, since the gorges are notoriously dangerous to navigate. Ships with much deeper draft will be able to navigate upstream from Shanghai all the way to Chongqing. It is expected that shipping to Chongqing will increase fivefold. There are two series of ship locks installed near the dam (). Each of them is made up of five stages, with transit time at around four hours. Maximum vessel size is 10,000 tons. The locks are 280 m long, 35 m wide, and 5 m deep (918 × 114 × 16.4 ft). That is 30 m longer than those on the