WORK on the second phase of Chongqing Cuntan Container Terminal has begun, Xinhua reported.

The CNY1.1 billion (US$146.55 million) expansion project will develop three 3,000-tonne container berths with an annual capacity of 420,000 TEU. The project is expected to be completed in the first half of 2011 and it will make Cuntan the largest container terminal on the upper Yangtze.

The combined capacity of Cuntan first phase and second phase will be 700,000 TEU, but the actual handling capacity will reach one million TEU, the report said.