China’s 2nd Railway line to Tibet comes close to Arunachal Pradesh

TIL Desk/World/Beijing/ China on Friday operationalised its first fully electrified bullet train in the remote Himalayan region of Tibet, connecting the provincial capital Lhasa and Nyingchi, a strategically located Tibetan border town close to Arunachal Pradesh. The 435.5-km Lhasa-Nyingchi section of the Sichuan-Tibet Railway has been inaugurated ahead of the centenary celebrations of the ruling Communist Party of China (CPC) on July 1.

The first electrified railway in Tibet Autonomous Region opened on Friday morning, linking Lhasa with Nyingchi as “Fuxing” bullet trains enter official operation on the plateau region. It has a designed speed of 160 km per hour and operates on a single-line electrified railway. It stops at nine stations, including Lhasa, Shannan and Nyingchi and can handle passenger and freight transportation, the report said.

Compared to roads, the Lhasa-Nyingchi railway reduces the travel time from Lhasa to Nyingchi from five hours to approximately 3.5 hours, and cuts the travel time from Shannan to Nyingchi from six hours to approximately 2 hours, it said. The rail line passes through 47 tunnels and 121 bridges and crosses the Brahmaputra river locally called Yarlung Zangbo 16 times. Tunnels and bridges account for approximately 75 per cent of the total length of the railway track.