Authorities will continue to deal with the problem of private ships being overloaded while traveling along the Yangtze River.

"The State is working on the problems, such as overloaded ship being unable to pass through the river and hitting the Yangtze River Bridge," said Zhu Ning, National People's Congress deputy, and also president of China Changjiang National Shipping Group Corporation.

Zhu also said that authorities have worked to solve the problem and hopes to allow more freight and larger ships to travel down the river.

For instance, the river will be deepened to 6 meters from Anqing to Wuhan to allow larger ships to pass through, he said.

Zhu also said authorities are strictly monitoring the problem of overloaded ships.

"We will punish them severely if they are caught compromising the safety of transportation along the Yangtze River," Zhu said.