China starts extension of Tibet railway


BEIJING (Sept 27, 2010): China has begun to extend its controversial railway though Tibet with a new link from the provincial capital to the region's second-largest city, state media said Monday.

Work on the 253km line from Lhasa southward to Xigaze began Sunday and was projected to cost 13.3 billion yuan (RM6.14 billion) by completion in 2014, the China Daily newspaper quoted officials as saying.

"It will play a vital role in boosting tourism in the south-western part of Tibet and promoting the rational use of resources along the line," the newspaper quoted Liu Zhijun, China's minister of railways, as saying at a ground-breaking ceremony in Lhasa.

The new single-track line has a designed speed of 120km per hour. About 115km of the route is to pass through tunnels or over bridges, the report said.

The extension is the first since President Hu Jintao opened the 1,142km, high-altitude Qinghai-Tibet railway, which links Lhasa to China's national rail network, in July 2006.

Many overseas Tibetan activists called for a boycott of the railway, saying it was built for political purposes and would speed up the migration of ethnic Han Chinese people into the region to dilute its Tibetan population.

Earlier reports said China eventually hopes to build a link from Lhasa to the border with Nepal and construct at least two more branch lines as part of its plans for long-term economic development of Tibet.

Officials also said they planned to build another line from Lhasa to the border town of Yadong within the next 10 years, allowing the possibility of rail links between major Indian and Chinese cities via the Nathu La pass. — dpa