The sluice gates of the Three Gorges Dam are opened for the first time this year as floodwater from heavy rain hurtles down the Yangtze River on Sept 2, 20. [Photo/Xinhua]

CHENGDU - A hydropower station planned for Southwest China's Sichuan province received 53 billion yuan (about $8.5 billion) in loans Friday from seven domestic financial institutions, company sources said.

The planned hydropower station, in the middle reaches of the Yalong River in Sichuan's Ganzi Tibetan autonomous prefecture, will have an installed generating capacity of 3 million kilowatts with a total reservoir capacity of 10.8 billion cubic meters.

Construction will cost about 66.5 billion yuan and the loan agreement, signed in Chengdu Friday, covers about 80 percent of the total, said Chen Yunhua, president of Yalong River Hydropower Development Co Ltd.

The seven lenders are China Construction Bank, Industrial and Commercial Bank of China, Postal Savings Bank of China, Agricultural Bank of China, China Development Bank, Bank of China and Bank of Communications. They will provide long term, low-interest loans to support the project.

He said the project will transform the river's hydropower resources into a new driving force for the regional economy and generate clean energy to fuel southwestern and eastern China.

The station will be the largest in China's Tibetan areas. Its first generator is expected to come into service at the end of 2021 and the entire station to be completed in 2023.?