The inauguration of the printing operation marks a key milestone in Beijing’s long-term vision to create infrastructure within the Tibetan Autonomous Region (TAR) and connect the remote border areas and Lhasa to interior China.
The terminus of the railway line is probably going to be on the brink of the Bayi town area, near the border with India.
With a speed of 160kmph, the railway service are going to be the fastest in Tibet.
The 435km line passes through 47 tunnels and 120 bridges, according Tibet Railway Construction, a subsidiary of China State Railway Group, which built it.
Construction had started in 2014 on the railway line connecting Lhasa and Nyingchi in southeastern Tibet.
Until the top of last year, 31.2 billion yuan ($4.8 billion) had been invested within the project, consistent with official data.
A state media report said on Thursday the new railroad is a crucial a part of the Sichuan-Tibet railway link under construction and a standard line of the planned Yunnan-Tibet rail service.
The Sichuan-Tibet railway may be a major transport construction project of the 14th five-year plan that covers the amount from 2021 to 2025.
China has been rapidly developing infrastructure in Nyingchi, which just like the remainder of TAR isn't accessible to foreign journalists and diplomats.
The Chinese government is building the Sichuan-Tibet railway’s Ya’an-Nyingchi section, which can be 1,011km long and include 26 stations when completed - taking the railway right up to the boundary with India.
The state media report added that its completion and opening may be a realisation of “everyone’s dream of ‘getting on a train to Nyingchi’, and it's of great significance to assist rural revitalisation and promote the high-quality development of Tibet”.
The city of Nyingchi already features a functional airport, which is claimed to be of dual use – civil and military.
The Lhasa-Nyingchi highway, too, has been operational for 2 years.
The 409.2km highway cuts time period between the 2 cities in TAR from eight hours to four hours.
In May, China completed the development of a strategically significant highway through the world’s deepest canyon in TAR on the Brahmaputra (known as Yarlung Zangbo in China), connecting remote areas along the Arunachal border.
It was the “second significant passageway” to Medog county that borders Arunachal, the Xinhua press agency reported in May, directly connecting the Pad township in Nyingchi to Baibung in Medog county.
Earlier this year, China’s state planning organisation, the National Development and Reform Commission, said it'll strengthen construction of railway projects, which are strategic for border defence.
