Construction of a coal port started Saturday in Jinzhou City, northeast China's Liaoning Province.

The port is a state-approved project designed to boost the transport of coal from landlocked northern Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region to fuel-thirsty markets in the south.

 
The project, the second of the kind under construction in the province this year, has been designed to have an annual handling capacity of 35 million tonnes upon the completion of the first phase construction by 2013.

The other coal port in Suizhong County is expected to boast 100 million tonnes of annual capacity.