News

CHINA will build six new railway lines heading to the country's vast western area by 2020, including extensions of the world's highest rail track, the Qinghai-Tibet Railway, the Ministry of Railways said at the weekend.

The new railways include two extensions of the Qinghai-Tibet Railway to connect Lhasa, the capital of Tibet Autonomous Region, and two other Tibetan cities Nyingchi and Shiagatse. The third new line will link Germu City in Qinghai Province to Dunhuang City in Gansu Province, the ministry said at a meeting with Qinghai-Tibet Railway Co at the weekend.

Construction of the three lines is expected to start in the next two to three years, the ministry said. The three extensions of the Qinghai-Tibet Railway will add to the existing 1,956 kilometer length of the rail track.

Another extension has also been mooted, but not yet confirmed, to link Lhasa to Tibet's Yadong, a city 460 kilometers southwest of the provincial capital.

The 34-billion-yuan (US$4.94 billion) Qinghai-Tibet Railway, which went into operation on July 1, 2006, currently runs across the frozen tundra of the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau from Lhasa to Xining, capital of Qinghai Province.

The highest and longest highlands railroad in the world and the first railway connecting Tibet with other parts of China, it has boosted border trade with Nepal and India and turned Tibet into the frontier for southern Asian economic communication.

The ministry added that the other three new lines were Germu to Kaola City in Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region, Xining to Zhangye City in Gansu Province and Germu to Chengdu, capital of Sichuan Province.

The three lines are expected to begin operating by 2020, the ministry said.

The six new lines would boost the western region's economy, said ministry spokesman Wang Yongping.

Source: Shanghai Daily