(TibetanReview.net, Apr09’20) – Having completed building all the 47 tunnels on the Lhasa-Nyingchi section of the Sichuan-Tibet railway just recently, China is now to take up this year the building of the railway’s most intricate section, the Ya’an-Nyingchi railway which will connect China with Tibet by a second rail route, reported China’s official chinadaily.com.cn Apr 7.
The Lhasa-Nyingchi section is 435 kilometres long, with 75 per cent of it being bridges and tunnels.
Milin (Tibetan: Mainling) tunnel, located in Milin County of Nyingchi (Nyingtri) City, was considered the “hardest nut to crack” for railway constructors and it was completed on Apr 7, the report said. Its completion was stated to mark a huge progress for the mammoth Sichuan-Tibet railway project.
Its success will provide valuable reference for the Ya’an-Nyingchi railway – the intricate section of the Sichuan-Tibet railway – which is expected to begin construction this year, the report cited China’s top railway operator as saying.
The Lhasa-Nyingchi electrified railway section, designed for trains running at an average speed of 160 kilometres per hour, is scheduled to be operational in 2021, according to the report.
The completion of the Sichuan-Tibet railway running between Tibet’s capital Lhasa and Chengdu, capital of the Chinese province of Sichuan is not only of high strategic importance for movement and deployment of military personnel and assets but will also facilitate large-scale transport of mineral resources from Tibet to China as well as massive influx of Chinese settlers in the occupied territory in the reverse direction.
