Global Times - Reports of construction on new railway to Tibet denied

Reports of construction on new railway to Tibet denied

Source: Global Times
[08:51 September 03 2009]
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By Zhang Lei

Officials denied reports by Chengdu Business Daily and other Sichuan media saying that construction of a third railway into Tibet from inland China, this time connecting Lhasa to Chengdu in Southwest China's Sichuan Province, is to begin this month.

"China has plans for building the railway from Sichuan to Tibet, but no official construction date has been set yet," an unnamed official from the Ministry of Railways told the Global Times Wednesday.

The Xinhua News Agency quoted another official as saying that there is no specific start date due to the complex geological terrain along the line.

There were also denials that a 99-kilometer length of track stretching west from Chengdu to Chaoyanghu, for which construction will start this month, will be used for the Chengdu- Llasa line, as reported by Xinhua.

The line from Chengdu to Chaoyanghu is designed for use by high-speed trains capable of traveling 200 km/h, reported the Chengdu Business Daily on Sunday.

The Sichuan-Tibet Railway will stretch 1,629 kilometers, with 650 kilometers in Sichuan Province. It will only take eight hours to travel from Chengdu to Lhasa, the report said.

The planned construction will take eight years to complete, estimated investments totaling about 54 billion yuan ($8 billion), it said.

Currently there are two ways to travel from Chengdu to Lhasa; 3 days by car on Highway 318 or 45 hours by train via the Qinghai-Tibet line to Lhasa.

Completed on July 1, 2006, the Qinghai-Tibet Railway stretches 1,956 kilometers.

But comparatively, the future Sichuan-Tibet Railway will be more important, said the project planner from China Railway Eryuan Engineering Group.

"Sichuan-Tibet Railway will effectively boost the development of Tibet since Sichuan accounts for a quarter of West China's economy," said Tong Ruochun, vice chairman of the Standing Committee of Chengdu People's Congress, urging to accelerate construction.

But any existing timetable has been postponed, since the construction is difficult and requires greater investment, according to a project planner from the construction company.