Tibet plans to invest 28 billion yuan (US$3.7 billion) in ten
key construction projects this year, including an extension of the
Qinghai-Tibet Railway, said Qiangba Puncog, chairman of Tibet Autonomous
Region.
A Tibetan washes his face
beside the Lhasa river near the Lhasa railway bridge, July 1,
2006.
"Experts are still working on the designs and environmental
assessments of the extension line and government officials have
started calculating compensations to those who will lose their land
and properties to the railway," said Qiangba Puncog.
The 254-km extension line, which links the two largest cities in
Tibet - Lhasa and Xigaze - is the first feeder line for the
Qinghai-Tibet Railway. Construction is expected to begin this year
and be completed in 2010, at a cost of 11 billion yuan (US$1.42
billion).
Located in the southwestern region of Tibet, and bordering
Nepal, Bhutan and India, Xigaze is 280 km southwest of Lhasa.
The Qinghai-Tibet Railway, running 1,956 kilometers from Xining
city in Qinghai province to Lhasa in Tibet, was officially put into
operation in July 2006. It is the highest railway in the world and
ended Tibet's history without railway.
Nine other projects are also expected to start this year,
including the Zangmu Hydropower Station on the Yarlung Zangbo
River, the water control project in Pundo county and the renovation
of the Sichuan-Tibet highway.
(Xinhua News Agency January 19, 2008)
