Recently, the Department of Transport issued the Implementation Plan for Creating a Higher-Level "Golden Corridor" for Oversized Transport (hereinafter referred to as the Implementation Plan), specifying that by 2027, a "Golden Corridor" for oversized transport from Deyang to Leshan to Yibin will be basically completed, characterized by smoother passage, higher efficiency, better service, and a more favorable market.

Oversized transport refers to the movement of goods characterized by exceeding standard limits in length, width, height, and weight—commonly known as the "four excesses". This category typically includes critical infrastructure components, often termed "pillars of national strength", such as giant turbine runners for hydropower stations, stators and rotors of generator units, nuclear power equipment, and large chemical reaction towers. Why is Sichuan building a dedicated "Golden Corridor" for these "giants"? And how will it further enhance its true value?

Why Build It? Driven by Demand and Industrial Empowerment, Paving the Way for a Trillion-Yuan Heavy Equipment Industry to "Go Global".

Equipment manufacturing is one of Sichuan's distinctive and advantageous industries. Deyang, known as the "Capital of Heavy Equipment", produces 60 percent of the country's nuclear power units, 50 percent of large-scale power plant castings and forgings, 40 percent of hydropower units, and over 30 percent of thermal power units and steam turbines. Among these, its power generation equipment output ranks first in the world.

These "giants" must rely on oversized transport corridors to move from Sichuan across the nation and to the world. Consider, for example, two natural gas processing equipment units shipped to Russia's Far East region in July 2025: they underwent five transfers over 120 days to reach their destination. The journey began at a factory in Deyang, followed by a two-day southbound trip along the oversized transport highway to the oversized cargo terminal at Leshan Port. They were then transferred to river barges, sailing down the Minjiang River through Yibin and into the Yangtze River. Finally, via a highway-river-sea intermodal transport route, they arrived in Russia's Far East. The route they took is precisely the Deyang-Leshan-Yibin oversized transport "Golden Corridor" that the Implementation Plan proposes to establish.

Currently, the oversized transport corridor in the province consists of the oversized transport highway and the Minjiang River waterway, among other components. The oversized transport highway serves as the overland lifeline, connecting key production hubs such as Deyang, Chengdu, Meishan, and Leshan. The Minjiang River waterway, acting as the traditional outbound water route from Sichuan, plays a crucial role in highway-river intermodal transport.

With "Made-in-Sichuan" heavy equipment products evolving toward larger and heavier designs, the demand for out-of-gauge (OOG) transport has grown significantly. In 2025, the province's approvals for OOG transport permits increased by 12 percent year-on-year, exceeding 270,000 cases. In response to this situation, it is both crucial and urgent to further enhance the management and maintenance standards of oversized transport corridors, optimize administrative approval services, strengthen transport coordination and support, and improve the efficiency of vehicle and vessel passage.

"This corridor directly ensures that core products worth hundreds of millions or even billions of yuan from leading enterprises like Dongfang Electric Machinery can be manufactured and shipped out. Whether this corridor flows smoothly or not is crucial for the development of Sichuan's trillion-yuan equipment manufacturing industrial cluster," said a leading official from the Sichuan Provincial Transport and Logistics Development Center.

How to Build It? "Hardware and Software" Combined to Propel "Made-in-Sichuan" Equipment to the Rivers and Seas.

In recent years, Sichuan has accelerated efforts to reduce overall social logistics costs. The development of this "Golden Corridor" represents a key focal point in this drive for greater efficiency and cost reduction.

"This is not only a 'golden lifeline' for industry but also a 'golden path' to lowering logistics costs," said the official from the Sichuan Provincial Transport and Logistics Development Center. According to the official, the Implementation Plan is one of the "N" sub-plans under Sichuan's "1+4+N" series of initiatives to reduce overall social logistics costs. It aims to further enhance the efficiency of highway-river intermodal transport for oversized cargo, lower logistics costs, establish a higher-level "Golden Corridor" for oversized transport, and support the high-quality development of the province's heavy equipment industry and the real economy.

For enhancing the true value of the corridor, the Implementation Plan introduces a series of innovative measures across four dimensions: facility enhancement, approval streamlining, passage guarantee, and market cultivation.

In terms of hardware upgrades, efforts will be accelerated to advance the construction of navigation-hydropower junctions such as Laomukong and Dongfengyan on the Minjiang River. The second phase of the waterway improvement project for the Minjiang River (from the Longxikou Junction to Hejiangmen in Yibin) will be carried out to achieve a higher classification for the Minjiang River's oversized transport channel. Additionally, work will begin on the oversized cargo terminal at the Laojiangba operation area of Leshan Port, and the signage system along the oversized transport highway will be enhanced. In terms of service optimization, a "nanny-style" approval service will be implemented. Measures include offering "one-case-one-policy" treatment for key enterprises, establishing a "one-on-one" coordination and response mechanism, and providing cross-departmental "one-stop" services for transport coordination and support. The use of a "white list" system will be promoted, and innovative services such as inspection exemption based on prior commitments will be explored. In terms of transit support, a provincial-level standard for coordinating oversized transport services will be established, while efforts will be intensified to deepen the application of the Sichuan Provincial Traffic Volume Survey and Road Condition Management System in oversized transport scenarios.

The Implementation Plan specifies that a dedicated task force will be established to prioritize funding and policy support for the oversized transport corridor. A satisfaction evaluation mechanism for service recipients will also be created to ensure all tasks are fully implemented. With the Implementation Plan put into effect, this oversized transport corridor will transform from merely "guaranteeing passage" to providing "efficient services". It will link the Chengdu Plain Economic Zone with the Yangtze River Economic Belt, empower "Made-in-Sichuan" equipment to go global through river-sea routes and, in doing so, enable a deeper integration into global industrial chains.