On Friday, China launched its first fully electric powered bullet train remote Himalayan’s Tibet terrain. The bullet train runs between Lhasa and Nyingchi, a Tibetan town near Arunachal Pradesh. The Lhasa-Nyingchi stretch of the Sichuan-Tibet Railway has been combined ahead of the reigning Communist Party of China’s July 1 festivities.
The bullet train is the first electric railway in the Tibet Autonomous Region to be operational. The Sichuan-Tibet Railway will be the second railway entering Tibet after the Qinghai-Tibet Railway, which will go through the southeast of the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau, which is said to be one of the world’s most active geolocations.
In November 2020, Chinese President Xi Jinping instructed officials to hasten the building of a new railway project between Sichuan Province and Nyingchi in Tibet, stating that the new train line would be a major actor in preserving the border interests and tranquillity.
India has categorically denied the accusations. The India-China border dispute stems from China’s assertion that Arunachal Pradesh is part of South Tibet, which India categorically denies. The India-China border dispute extends over the 3,488-kilometer-long Line of Actual Control (LAC).
The Sichuan-Tibet Railway originates in Chengdu, the capital of Sichuan Province, and continues via Ya’an before entering Tibet through Qamdo. The travel time from Chengdu to Lhasa has been cut from 48 hours to 13 hours.
“If a scenario of a crisis happens at the China-India border, the railway will provide a great convenience for China’s delivery of strategic materials,” Qian Feng, head of the research department at Tsinghua University’s National Strategy Institute, told the official newspaper Global Times, according to PTI.
