China is all set to operate the first electric train in the remote Himalayan region of Tibet, connecting the provincial capital Lhasa with Nyingchi – the strategically located Tibetan border town close to Arunachal Pradesh. According to official media reports, the 435.5-km-long Lhasa-Nyingchi section of the Sichuan-Tibet Railway is expected to be inaugurated ahead of the centenary celebrations of the ruling Communist Party of China (CPC) on July 1.
The power transmission process has been completed and testing has been done, Liu Yuxiang, chief engineer of the Lhasa-Nyingchi Railway, earlier quoted state-run CCTV as saying. The Sichuan-Tibet Railway will be the second railway in Tibet after the Qinghai-Tibet Railway. It will pass through the southeast of the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau, one of the most geologically active regions in the world.
In November, Chinese President Xi Jinping instructed officials to expedite the construction of a new railway project linking Sichuan province and Ningchi in Tibet, saying the new rail line would play an important role in safeguarding border stability. The Sichuan–Tibet Railway starts in Chengdu, the capital of Sichuan Province, and travels through Yan and enters Tibet via Qamdo, shortening the journey from Chengdu to Lhasa from 48 hours to 13 hours. .
Nyingchi is a provincial-level city of Medog, which borders Arunachal Pradesh. China claims Arunachal Pradesh as part of South Tibet, which India has strongly rejected. The 3,488-km-long Line of Actual Control (LAC) is involved in the India-China border dispute.
Qian Feng, director of the research department at the National Strategy Institute at Tsinghua University, previously told the official daily Global Times that “if a crisis scenario occurs at the Sino-India border, the railway will provide a great facility for China’s delivery of strategic materials of.”
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