[Salon] China counts down to start of work on Xinjiang-Tibet Railway

[Chas Freeman <cwfresidence@gmail.com>]

https://www.scmp.com/news/china/article/3321311/china-counts-down-start-work-xinjiang-tibet-railway?module=top_story&pgtype=homepage

China counts down to start of work on Xinjiang-Tibet Railway

9 Aug 2025

Work is expected to get under way this year on one of the world’s most ambitious rail projects with the launch of a state-owned company to oversee construction and operations of a line that will link Hotan in Xinjiang and Lhasa in Tibet.

The Shanghai Securities News reported on Friday that Xinjiang-Tibet RailwayCompany had been formally registered with 95 billion yuan (US$13.2 billion) in capital and wholly owned by China State Railway Group.

According to the registration, the company’s business scope also includes diversified operations such as real estate development, tourism, catering, accommodation and international project contracting.

Under the plan, the route will join the existing Lhasa-Shigatse line with a new one from Hotan to Shigatse, forming a roughly 2,000km (1,240-mile) strategic artery linking northwestern and southwestern China.

The Xinjiang-Tibet Railway is one of four lines planned to connect Tibet with the rest of the country, with the other services linking the western region to Qinghai, Sichuan and Yunnan provinces.

The Qinghai-Tibet line is up and running while construction continues on the other two.

“This ambitious project aims to establish a 5,000km plateau rail framework centred on Lhasa by 2035,” Hubei-based Huayuan Securities said in a research note on Friday.

The project’s registered capital represents initial funding, not total project costs. For example, the 1,800km Sichuan-Tibet Railway required an estimated 320 billion yuan to build.

Parts of the route will also run near the China-India Line of Actual Control, the de facto border between the two countries, giving it defensive importance in a frontier area with less infrastructure than the rest of China.

The route will have an average elevation of over 4,500 metres, and pass through the Kunlun, Karakoram, Kailash and Himalayan mountain ranges, going through glaciers, frozen rivers and permafrost.

Winter temperatures on the Tibetan Plateau can plunge to -40 degrees Celsius (-40 Fahrenheit), with oxygen levels at just 44 per cent of inland regions.

Along with the engineering challenges, the project team will have to cope with accelerated machinery wear, soaring logistics costs, and environmental conservation needs.

Planning for the Xinjiang-Tibet line dates back to 2008, when it was included in the revised “Medium and Long-Term Railway Network Plan” approved by the National Development and Reform Commission, the country’s top economic planner.

Key milestones include the May 2022 launch of survey and design tenders for the Hotan-Shigatse section.

Ministry of Transport officials confirmed in April that construction was expected to get under way this year.