The longest gas pipeline running through China from the west to the east has won the country's top environment-friendly project award for its effective protection of the environment.

At a ceremony held here Friday, officials from the State Environmental Protection Administration (SEPA) presented the State Environment-Friendly Project award to the pipeline project and nine other winners.

This is the first time that China has issued environment-friendly awards to construction projects, aiming to encourage more constructors to follow suit.

The 3,838-km-long gas pipeline, starting from west China's Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region and ending in east China's port city of Shanghai, runs through various ecologically fragile areas and the country's three longest rivers.

Since the launching of the project in 2002, the China National Petroleum Corporation has taken various steps to conserve the environment along the line.

"The pipeline bypasses environmentally-sensitive areas and important historical cultural sites, and all the damaged environment resulting from the construction has been basically restored," said Pan Yue, deputy-director of SEPA, at the ceremony.

The 10 winners of the environment-friendly project award also include the Ertan Hydro-power Station at the Yalong River in southwest China, the Suzhou River clean-up project in Shanghai, a real-estate project in northeastern port city of Dalian and a subway project in southern Guangzhou city.

The 10 projects cost more than 100 billion yuan (12.5 billion dollars)and had been selected from 163 projects nationwide "in a democratic way", Pan said.

Meanwhile, the US Universal Ensco. Inc., the environment supervisor of the gas pipeline project, was also awarded a prize for its excellent work of supervision.

"The award winners have set good examples for environmental protection in the country, and we hope more companies will join their ranks," said Zhou Shengxian, director of SEPA.

He urged localities to strictly implement the law on environment impact assessment, saying that all construction projects must pass the assessment or they will be halted.