Beijing, February 10 – Chinese surveyors have almost completed a location survey for a branch line of the Qinghai-Tibet Railway that will extend from Tibetan capital Lhasa to Xigaze, close to the borders of India, Bhutan and Nepal.
The First Survey and Design Institute of China Railway (FSDI), based in Xi’an, capital of northwest China’s Shaanxi Province, has started the design work for the extension line to Xigaze, a Tibetan city some 280 km to the southwest of Lhasa, officials said.
Construction is expected to begin this year on the new 253-km line with a design speed of at least 120 km per hour, Xinhua news agency reported.
Upon completion, the first feeder line for the Qinghai-Tibet Railway will be able to carry seven million tonnes of cargo a year, and eventually ten million, an official from the FSDI said.
The new line is expected to go into operation into 2010.
FSDI started a feasibility study for the Lhasa-Xigaze line in February 2002, which was approved by the Ministry of Railways in May last year. The institute began an initial survey in October last year and then a location survey on December 5.
Located in the southwest of Tibet Autonomous Region, Xigaze is the hometown of the Panchen Lama.
