Beijing, December 9 – The strategic Qinghai-Tibet Railway, the world’s highest, is nearing completion as it has reached the last stop prior to Lhasa, the Tibetan capital, the state media reported today.
The 1,142-km Qinghai-Tibet railway has extended its way into Gulu Town in Nagqu County in northern Tibet — the last stop before it reaches Lhasa — on Wednesday, the railway headquarters said.
Gulu Town is only 217 km away from Lhasa, and construction is proceeding as scheduled, Xinhua news agency quoted officials as saying.
Since the railway entered Tibet at Amdo County, some 440 km from Lhasa in June, track-laying on approximately 240 km of the railway within in Tibet has completed.
With an average altitude of 4,500 metres above the sea level, Nagqu area is located amid the Tanggula, Gangdise and Nyainqentanglha ranges, all sacred mountains regarded as “insurmountable even by eagles” in the eyes of locals.
Currently, workers are laying tracks on the Nagqu area in freezing snows and biting winds, where the average temperature is normally 30 Celsius degree under zero, an official in charge of the area’s railway construction said.
The Qinghai-Tibet Railway from Golmud in Qinghai Province to Lhasa is the most elevated rail route in the world, reaching an altitude of up to 5,070 metres.
China began building the Qinghai-Tibet railway in 2001. The railway, the cost of which is expected to be 3.16 billion US dollars, is scheduled to open in 2007.
