[Slightly OT] A railway across the roof of the world

["D Lindstrom" <D_Lindstrom@Bigpond.com>]

A railway across the roof of the world

By JULIAN WEST NEW DELHI
Monday 15 January 2001

China is to build the world's highest railway across the frozen wastes of
the Tibetan plateau in a move that Tibetans fear will hasten the destruction
of their culture and religion.

The first railway across the Tibetan plateau, to measure 1086 kilometres
across some of the world's highest mountains and most inhospitable terrain,
would be a major feat of engineering.

But it has already attracted protests from the Dalai Lama's
government-in-exile and Tibetan activists who believe it will see Tibet
overrun by Chinese settlers and troops and ruin the environment with
increased mining and logging.

China's plan to build a railway to Lhasa, Tibet's capital, was drawn up soon
after China invaded eastern Tibet in 1950. But for years it has been
thwarted by the seemingly insuperable problems of building on Tibet's
permafrost, the elevation and the vast expense.

In 1999 Beijing announced that feasibility studies had been completed for a
line to Quinghai in Tibet and for an alternative route from Yunnan province
bordering Tibet's south-east. Two other routes were also proposed.

A meeting in Beijing last September considered the viability of all four
routes. The 1086-kilometre Qinghai route, which would cost about $A4.5
billion, is the shortest and cheapest.

The route from Yunnan, preferred by some railway officials because it cuts
through the milder rainforests of south-eastern Tibet and originates in a
popular tourist area, is about 480 kilometres longer and would cost more
than three times as much. The other two are longer and costlier.

A decision is expected in the next three months, but railway ministry
officials have already said they have recommended the route through Qinghai
and work has just begun on enlarging the existing Xining-Golmud stretch of
the line.

Whichever route is chosen, it involves one of the world's greatest
engineering challenges - crossing the ice-bound Kunlun mountains through 30
kilometres of tunnels and two 4880-metre passes before making a hair-raising
descent to the Lhasa plateau. Work is expected to be completed by 2010.

Statements from Beijing have made clear that the main reason for the project
is strategic. A report in the Qinghai Daily newspaper described the railway
as "the political front line" in consolidating border defences and as a
means of subduing unrest by the "Dalai clique" in Tibet.

Beijing is also keen to exploit Tibet's vast untapped natural resources,
increase migration from China's overpopulated cities and speed Tibet's
"assimilation into the motherland".

- TELEGRAPH