(TibetanReview.net, Jun21’20) – Reporting further progress in the building of the Lhasa-Nyingchi railway in occupied Tibet, China said Jun 21 that the building of all its 120 bridges and 47 tunnels had now been completed. Once put into operation in 2021, it will be the Chinese railway, having both military and civilian use, closest to India’s border in the northeast.
The construction of a major bridge over the Yarlung Zangbo River concluded on Jun 20, marking the completion of all 120 bridges in the 435-km railway linking regional capital Lhasa and Nyingchi (Tibetan: Nyingtri), reported China’s official Xinhua news agency Jun 21.
The 525.1-meter-long bridge at an altitude of 3,350 metres is the world’s highest concrete-filled steel tube arch railway bridge, it said.
The report said the building of all the 47 tunnels on the railway had been completed in early April.
Given the nature of the region’s terrain, 75 per cent of the Lhasa-Nyingchi railway is bridges and tunnels, and it has a designed speed of 160 km per hour.
The Lhasa-Nyingchi railway is part of China’s ambitious Sichuan-Tibet railway. It is being built on both its Tibetan and Chinese territorial sections. But the line that links the two remains the most challenging. Both the sections will begin operation upon completion while China continues to seek a way to come up with the engineering technology and skill to build the vital connecting line.
