China started operating its first bullet train on Friday in Tibet, bordering India. The length of this section of the Sichuan-Tibet Railway is 435.5 kilometers.
China started operation of electronic bullet train (File Photo)
China on Friday started operating its first electronic bullet train in the remote Himalayan region of Tibet. The train connects the provincial capital Lhasa and Nyingchi, which is the strategically close Tibetan border town of Arunachal Pradesh. The 435.5-km-long Lhasa-Nyingchi section of the Sichuan-Tibet Railway has been inaugurated ahead of the centenary celebrations of the ruling Communist Party of China (CPC) on July 1.
The first electronic train in the Tibet Autonomous Region opened on Friday morning, the ‘Fuxing’ bullet train connecting Lhasa with Nyingchi, state-run Xinhua news agency reported. Its operation has officially started in the plateau region. The Sichuan-Tibet Railway will be the second railway in Tibet after the Qinghai-Tibet Railway.
48 hour journey shortened to 13 hours
It will pass through the southeast of the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau, one of the most geologically active regions in the world. In November, Chinese President Xi Jinping instructed officials to expedite the construction of a new railway project connecting Sichuan province and Nyingchi in Tibet.
Jinping said that the new rail line will play an important role in protecting the border stability. The Sichuan–Tibet Railway starts in Chengdu, the capital of Sichuan Province, and travels through Yan and enters Tibet via Qamdo. This train shortens the journey from Chengdu to Lhasa from 48 hours to 13 hours.
If the dispute increases, the supply will deliver
The city of Nyingchi is adjacent to the border of Arunachal Pradesh. China claims Arunachal Pradesh as part of South Tibet, which India has strongly denied. The 3,488-km-long Line of Actual Control (LAC) is involved in the India-China border dispute. Qian Feng, director of the research department at the National Strategy Institute at Tsinghua University, had earlier told the Global Times that the railway would provide a great deal of strategic material transport to China if the dispute escalated along the India-China border.
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