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New Delhi: According to reports, China is going to construct a rail link which will connect Xinjiang province with Tibet. The Hong Kong-based South China Morning Post reported that a part of the ambitious rail link will "run near" the Line of Actual Control (LAC) with India.
It also reported that the work will probably begin in 2025, and a state-owned company is going to oversee the construction and operations of the line linking Hotan in Xinjiang and Lhasa in Tibet. South China Morning Post quoted the state-run Shanghai Securities News, which said the China State Railway Group has launched the Xinjiang-Tibet Railway Company to build the project.
The Xinjiang-Tibet Railway Company has been registered with a capital of $13.2 billion. The initial funding of the project, for the 1,800 km Sichuan-Tibet Railway stretch, is around $45 billion.
As per the report, parts of the Xinjiang-Tibet rail link will run near the Line of Actual Control between India and China. The report stated that it gives the project "defensive importance in a frontier area with less infrastructure than the rest of China."
Notably, China built the Xinjiang-Tibet highway through the Aksai Chin area, which was a major flashpoint in the 1962 war. The Xinjiang-Tibet Railway is one of four lines which China has planned to connect Tibet with the country. The other services reportedly link the western region to Sichuan, Yunnan, and Qinghai provinces, and the Qinghai-Tibet line is already operational.
Notably, China is constructing the biggest dam in the world over the Brahmaputra River in Tibet, close to Arunachal Pradesh. According to reports, the dam, once completed, will become a cause of tremendous concern for India and Bangladesh. The total cost of the project is around $170 billion. However, China has claimed the dam would not have any negative impact on those countries.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi may travel to China's Tianjin from August 31 to September 1 to attend the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) summit, marking his first visit to China since 2019. China has reportedly extended a warm welcome to PM Modi ahead of his participation in the SCO summit, as Beijing seeks to strengthen its engagement with New Delhi amid rising global concerns over tariffs imposed by US President Donald Trump.
