Tai'an in East China's Shandong province will step up construction of major projects in 2024, according to the government work report delivered at the second session of the 14th Shandong Provincial People's Congress, which opened in Jinan, the provincial capital, on Jan 22. 

The construction of a highway between Linyi in Shandong province and Xuzhou in East China's Jiangsu province will be launched this year, which includes 34 separate ongoing projects along the section between Tai'an and Dongping. 

Construction of the Dongping Lake flood detention area will also be promoted, while projects such as the southern drainage of the old lake area and the improvement of the Liuchang River waterway will be carried out. Several reservoirs will be built, with the Yeyuan reservoir in Weifang to be expanded and 125 dangerous reservoir flood gates to be reinforced. 

Efforts will be made to guide the nine cities along the Yellow River basin in the province to jointly create demonstration zones for integrated development, while support will also be provided to Tai'an in building an ecological conservation zone and becoming a leading area for high-quality development in the Yellow River Basin. 

Construction of the Jinan and Qingdao metropolitan circles will be promoted to enhance the synergy between the cities of Jinan, Zibo, Tai'an, Liaocheng, Dezhou and Binzhou. 

In addition, construction of pumped storage projects in Weifang, Tai'an, Zaozhuang, and other cities will be advanced. Projects such as the electrochemical energy storage will be completed, with the total capacity of new energy storage set to exceed 5 million kilowatts.