YICHANG, July 2  -- The throughput of the five-tier ship lock of the Three Gorges Dam, the world's largest hydropower project, reached a record high in the first half of 2014, said authorities on Wednesday.

In the first six months, the throughput through the project's ship lock reached 55.69 million tonnes, an increase of 11.35 percent year on year, said the Three Gorges Navigation Administration.

The throughput of passengers also grew 54 percent to reach 191,400, said the administration.

The top three categories of cargo were mining materials, ore and containers.

China is considering creating an economic belt along the Yangtze River to connect the relatively developed eastern region with less developed central and western areas.

The belt is expected to provide new development stimuli for more than one fifth of the country's land and about 600 million people.

The Three Gorges project is a multi-functional water control system, consisting of a 2,309-meter-long and 185-meter-high dam, a five-tier ship lock and 26 hydropower turbo-generators.

The project generates electricity, controls floods by storing excess water and helps to regulate the river's shipping capacity.