The shipping throughput of the Three Gorges Dam, the world's largest hydropower project, hit a new record in 2022, the Three Gorges Navigation Authority said Monday.

This aerial photo taken on Jan. 2, 2023 shows ships passing through the five-tier ship locks of the Three Gorges Dam in Yichang, central China's Hubei Province. (Photo by Wang Gang/Xinhua)

The project's total throughput reached 159.8 million tonnes in 2022, an increase of 6.12 percent year on year.

In 2022, the cargo throughput of the project was 159.65 million tonnes, a year-on-year increase of 6.53 percent. Meanwhile, the throughput via the five-tier ship locks at the dam was 156.18 million tonnes, up 6.65 percent year on year.

The Three Gorges project is a multi-functional water-control system, consisting of a 2,309-meter-long and 185-meter-high dam, five-tier ship locks on the north and south sides, and 34 turbo-generators with a combined generating capacity of 22.5 million kilowatts.

Since the Three Gorges locks opened to trial navigation in June 2003, the volume of freight passing through them has increased rapidly.