China to launch first Fuxing bullet train in occupied Tibet
DHARAMSALA, 7 Jan: China will soon launch the first Fuxing bullet train in its occupied Tibet connecting Tibet’s capital, Lhasa and Nyingchi, Tibetan town close to Arunachal Pradesh border.
Fuxing bullet trains connecting Lhasa and Nyingchi in eastern Tibet will run from June, Chinese state-run media China.org.cn reported citing China State Railway Group Co. Ltd.(CREC).
The track laying for the train service between Lhasa and Nyingchi has been completed by the CREC, the Chinese state-owned railway operator company on 31 Dec 2020 and it will reportedly become the first electrified railroad in Tibet.
The Chinese bullet train will have oxygen supply equipment and run both on internal combustion and electric to muscle its way through the harsh and fragile high-altitude environment of the Himalayas in Tibet.
While experts and activists have expressed their concern over the construction of such projects in Tibet as it threatens Tibet’s fragile high-altitude environment, CREC, the Chinese state-owned railway operator company has dug 47 tunnels and constructed 120 bridges for the 435-km rail line Lhasa-Linzhi Railway that runs along the Yarlung Tsangpo.
The train with the design speed of 160 km per hour will traverse through the Tibetan plateau with the 90 per cent of its track at 3,000 meters above sea level.
