Two-and-a-half years' safe operation of the Qinghai-Tibet railway has proven that China's technologies in building railways on frozen earth are ready to be used in more projects, a leading scientist said.

Local residents look on as a train passes through the Qinghai-Tibet railway in Damxung county, Tibet, in this file photo. [Xinhua]

The longest and highest railway in the world also received a State Special Award for Scientific and Technological Progress on Friday.

"The set of technologies that solved problems about frozen earth and altitude sickness can benefit many other projects, such as the future Xinjiang-Tibet railway and the petroleum pipelines across Northeast China," Cheng Guodong, professor and president of Lanzhou branch of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, said in an interview.

The technologies are also likely to make building an expressway on the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau possible, he said.

The Ministry of Transport and Cheng's branch are currently doing research on the idea, but it is still in the very early stages, he said.

"Technically it is possible, but building expressways are definitely more difficult than railways, because expressways are rigid and inflexible, not like rail tracks," he said.

So far, the Qinghai-Tibet railway has operated safely and no fatal accidents have occurred since its opening on July 1, 2006, Sun Yongfu, former vice-minister of railways, said in an interview.

By last May, 1.48 million passengers have ridden the train into Tibet and 1.52 million out of Tibet, said Sun, who is also an academician with China Academy of Sciences.