China the construction of the world's largest dam on the Yarlung Zangbo river – known in India as the Brahmaputra – in Tibet close to the Indian border, Chinese state-run Xinhua news agency reported on Wednesday.

First announced in 2020, the project is touted to be the world’s with a cost $137 billion. It is unclear when the project’s construction is due to begin.

The dam is planned to be built across a vast gorge in the Himalayas where the Brahmaputra before entering India through Arunachal Pradesh. The river then flows into Bangladesh the Bay of Bengal.

The project is estimated to produce of electricity annually – more than three times the capacity of the world’s current biggest hydropower plant, which is also in China, according to the South China Morning Post.

China has planned to install nearly of solar and wind energy production capacity as the rest of the world combined, according to a report by Global Energy Monitor in November. The Brahmaputra dam project would help Beijing make significant progress towards its carbon neutrality goals.

However, there are over the project. Critics say it could potentially alter local ecologies and change the flow and course of the river, affecting millions living...