Four plans were initially proposed when China decided to build a railway to Tibet. They were lines from west China's Qinghai Province, northwest Gansu Province and southwest Sichuan and Yunnan provinces. And why was the Qinghai-Tibet Railway finally given the thumbs up by the State Council on February 8, 2001?

 

Li Jincheng, chief designer of construction on the Qinghai-Tibet line says the route is superior to the others.  

 

Firstly, the Qinghai-Tibet link is the shortest. Compared with the 1,960-kilometer-long Yunnan-Tibet line, the 2,211-kilometer-long Gansu-Tibet link or the 2,015-kilometer-long Sichuan-Tibet route, the Qinghai-Tibet line from Golmud to Lhasa is the shortest at 1,110 kilometers.  

 

Additionally, the first 845 kilometers of the railway in Qinghai Province had been completed early in 1979. The completion and operation of this section provided valuable experience of construction for extending the line.  

 

And the costs of the Qinghai-Tibet link are less than the other options.

 

According to the general price index in 1995, the cost of the Qinghai-Tibet Railway was calculated at less than 20 billion yuan. The price of a Yunnan-Tibet railway was 65.4 billion yuan. The Gansu-Tibet railway was priced at 64 billion yuan and Sichuan-Tibet route was estimated at 76.8 billion yuan.

 

With the connection of the Qinghai-Tibet link, it is 3,952 kilometers from Lhasa to Beijing and 4,326 kilometers from Lhasa to Shanghai. It's therefore the most convenient line linking Tibet with inland cities and coastal areas.

 

Another factor is that preparatory work had been undertaken for the Qinghai-Tibet Railway since late 1950s.

 

With sound geological conditions the actual construction work along this particular route is less than what would be involved with the others. And experts have mastered how to deal with frozen ground conditions for railway construction projects at altitude.  

 

The terrain covered by the railway is relatively flat and in parts runs alongside the Qinghai-Tibet Road. This meant heavy machinery could be moved around and operated easily.

 

And the time required to construct the Qinghai-Tibet link is the shortest. Experts predicted that the Qinghai-Tibet Railway required six years to be built. However, it was estimated that the Gansu-Tibet and Yunnan-Tibet routes would have taken 32 years to finish and the Sichuan-Tibet line 38 years.

 

Various geographical difficulties such as landslides and mud-rock flows often occur on the other three options and will seldom happen on the Qinghai-Tibet Railway. Trains will be able to run all year round.

 

(China.org.cn June 25, 2006)