(TibetanReview.net, Nov 30, 2008)—In order to further exploit the potential of the Qinghai-Tibet Railway, China is to complete the building of its biggest logistics centre in the Tibet Autonomous Region by Jun 30, 2009, reported China’s online Tibet news service eng.Tibet.cn Nov 27. The building of the almost 1.5 billion yuan (US $220 million) project was begun on Sep 28, 2008, but work was affected by the March protests in Lhasa, the May earthquake in Sichuan and rare snowstorms in Nagqu (Tibetan: Nagchu) in October, it said.
The centre is built over 533 hectares of land and is located next to a railway station at an altitude of 4,500 meters in Nagqu Township of Nagqu County in northern Tibet.
The centre, located about 300 km northeast of Lhasa, is expected to handle 2.23 million tonnes of cargo by 2015 and 3.1 million tonnes by 2020, including raw minerals, local herbs, construction materials and commodity goods.