The water of picturesque West Lake in Hangzhou, capital of east China's Zhejiang Province, will become much clearer, when a major project to harness the lake is completed in 2001.

According to officials of the Hangzhou Municipal government, the city launched a project today to dredge 260 million cubic meters of alluvial silts in the first-stage of the project.

The project involves a total of 231 million yuan (28 million US dollars) of investment. By the time the whole project completed, the average depth of the lake water is expected to go up from the current 1.65 meters to 2.15 meters.

West Lake covers a total area of 5.6 square kilometers and attracts about 16 million tourists from home and abroad every year.