Tibet Railway Extension to be Finished a Year Ahead of Schedule
China is set to complete a 253-km rail link from Lhasa to Shigatse, near its border with Nepal, by 2014 — a year ahead of schedule. Railway authorities say the rail link, which is an extension of the Qinghai-Tibet railway, will be completed in two years’ time and will have an annual freight capacity of 8.3 million tonnes, as reported by the Xinhua news agency.
China began construction on the rail line — half of it on bridges and in tunnels through the mountains of Tibet — in 2010. The line will also run through the Grand Canyon of the Yarlung Zangbo River.
Construction on the line began in 2010 with a budge of 13.3 billion Yuan ($ 2.1 billion). Officials of the Tibet Autonomous Region (TAR) government were quoted as saying in January that the link would be completed in 2015, and would boost tourism and accelerate the transportation of natural resources.
The project is included under the current five year plan (2011-2015) for the TAR, which has also allocated funds for expanding the region’s road network with 5,000 km of roads being built in 2011.
– The Hindu