Construction of the Sanjiangyuan National Park to protect the headwaters of the Yangtze, Yellow and Lancang (Mekong) rivers will start this year with the building of roads and installing of surveillance cameras to assist protection work.

The park's administration bureau said on Monday that it would have a budget of 1 billion yuan ($145 million) this year for infrastructure construction.

The bureau began trial operation of the management of the national park, a vast wetland and grassland area on the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau, in April last year. It is scheduled to officially become China's first national park administered by the central government by 2020.