Lhasa, July 06 – China has started construction of the first railway station in Lhasa, Tibet’s capital at a cost of 12 million US dollars that would be landmark in the Himalayan region.
Construction on a railway station in Lhasa began yesterday, ushering in full-swing work on the line linking Lhasa and Xining, capital of neighbouring Qinghai province, Xinhua news agency said.
Over 100 million yuan will be invested in building the station, which will have a total of seven lines and three platforms upon its completion, expected in 2007.
Located on the opposite side of a river from the famed potala palace, the railway station will become a local landmark, the report said.
China has successfully surmounted three major problems -frozen soil, lack of oxygen and a fragile ecological environment – that could hamper the construction of the Qinghai-Tibet railway, Chinese vice minister of railways, Sun Yongfu said.
Sun said the railway ministry has earmarked about 100 million Yuan and mobilised the country’s research institutes to find ways to build the railway on frozen soil.
Aided by their findings, Chinese workers have set up bridges on the geographically-complicated soil in order to lay a solid roadbed, he said.
