The Baihetan project, which will be two thirds the size of the giant dam at the Three Gorges, was given the preliminary green light from the National Development and Reform Commission, the China Daily reported.

It will be built on the border of the southwestern provinces of Yunnan and Sichuan across the Jinsha river, the main western headwater stream of the Yangtze, according to the paper.

The hydropower station is expected to have an installed capacity of 12,000 megawatts, the paper said.

The project did not say what the project would cost, or when it was scheduled to be completed.

It ranks third behind the Xiluodu hydropower station, which is under construction and designed to have a capacity of 12,600 megawatts, and the Three Gorges station that will eventually produce 18,200 megawatts.

The Three Gorges dam was officially completed last month, marking an official milestone in China's effort to tame the Yangtze, although more power generators need to be installed to make it fully operational.

The Three Gorges structure is only the most high-profile in an intricate network of dams intended to prevent the type of devastating floods that have ravaged communities along the Yangtze for centuries.

In 1998, an enormous flood developed along the Yangtze, uprooting millions of families and killing more than 1,500. Two even larger disasters in the 1930s each claimed more than 140,000 lives.

While such inundations may now be less frequent, critics argue the price is too high.

They say the dams are too costly both in financial and human terms, as they force the mass evacuation of people, in addition to being extremely harmful to the environment and to unique natural scenery.

Critics also say the dams do not necessarily control flood waters.

At 6,300 kilometers (3,906 miles) long, the Yangtze is the nation's longest river and the third longest in the world.

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