The new railway line will run between Hotan in East Turkestan (Xinjiang province) and Shigatse in Tibet over a distance of 2,000 kilometres. It will cost 400 billion yuan, or 200 million per kilometre, to build. The price tag makes it more than double that of the most expensive line currently under construction – a high-speed railway of 679 kilometres from Moscow to St Petersburg that is costing US$25.3 billion, the report noted.
The Xinjiang -Tibet Railway will pass through mountains, glaciers, frozen rivers and permafrost, with 62% consisting of bridges and tunnels, the report noted.
Construction will begin in November this year and will take 10 years to complete. Trains will travel at 120-160 kilometres an hour between these two remote regions of the People’s Republic of China where campaigns for autonomy or restoration of independence continue to haunt Beijing.
