China plans to build a 540-kilometre
strategic high-speed rail link between Tibet and Nepal passing through a tunnel
under Mt Everest, a move that could raise alarm in India about the Communist
giant's growing influence in its neighbourhood.
China is considering tunneling under Mount
Everest to connect better with the South Asian markets. The extended rail line
from the Tibet’s capital Lhasa to Kathmandu in Nepal, will reduce India’s
influence in Nepal.
"A proposed extension of the
Qinghai-Tibet Railway to the China-Nepal border through Tibet would boost
bilateral trade and tourism as there is currently no rail line linking the two
countries," state-run China Daily reported on 9 April.
This was the first time a tunnel plan has
been revealed because China had earlier discussed extending the Qinghai-Lhasa
line to the Nepalese border without digging a tunnel.
The Lhasa line was extended to Xigaze, the
second biggest city in Tibet, which is closer to the Nepalese border as Chinese
authorities completed a 253-km long link railway line in August last
year.
The project would involve tacking on about
400 miles of rail to an already 1,200 mile track which takes 25 hours to
traverse as it is. The move would provide easy transport in one of the
trickiest terrains in the world, and increase China's influence in the region.
Historically, the mountain range that holds
eight of the world's fourteen peaks that top 8,000 meters in altitude has
served as a practical and cultural barrier. Nepal has long been in India's
sphere of influence, but in recent years China has bought in to the struggling
nation by investing in infrastructure such as roads and bridges.
Wang Mengshu, a rail expert at the Chinese
Academy of Engineering, said that engineers will face a number of difficulties
once the project begins.
"If the proposal becomes reality,
bilateral trade, especially in agricultural products, will get a strong boost,
along with tourism and people-to-people exchanges," he said.
"The changes in the elevation along
the line are remarkable. The line is probably have to go through Qomolangma so
that worker may have to dig some very long tunnels," Wang said. Qomolangma
Mountain is the Tibetan name for Mt Everest.
As with any engineering project of this
size, it is not without its opponents. The International Campaign for Tibet
cautions that there are "dangerous implications for regional security and
the fragile ecosystem of the world's highest and largest plateau."
Restrained by rugged Himalayan mountains
with its "remarkable" changes in elevation, trains on the line would
probably have a maximum speed of 120 kmph.
Wang said that the project is being
undertaken at Nepal's request and that China has begun preparatory work.
Losang Jamcan, Chairman of the Tibet
Autonomous Region, told Nepalese President Ram Baran Yadav during his visit to
Tibet's provincial capital Lhasa that China plans to extend the Tibet railway
to Kermug, the Chinese town nearest to Nepal border where a border trade port
has been built.
During his recent visit to Nepal, Chinese
Foreign Minister Wang Yi had asked the officials to conduct a feasibility study
to extend the rail network to Kathmandu and beyond, the report said. According
to state-run Chinese media outlets, Nepal has apparently responded favorably,
requesting that the line be built. Besides Nepal, China had earlier announced
plans to extend its Tibetan rail network to Bhutan and India.
Hu Shisheng, Director of the China
Institute of Contemporary International Relations, told official media that the
aim of the rail line is to simply improve the local economies and people's
livelihoods.
The feat would provide China with more
influence over India's allies and neighbours as well as continue Beijing's plan
to open up the Buddhist plateau of Tibet to tourism and modern Chinese
culture.
Basically, a rail line from mainland China
under the Himalayas would connect the nation to the billion plus inhabitants
living below "The Roof of the World".
Comments
Prime Minister NarendraModi has made
efforts to bolster the nation's regional pull, but the construction of a
contiguous rail line between China and the Nepalese capitol Kathmandu would
undermine his historical geographic advantage as early as 2020.
China has been scaling up its ties with
Nepal much to the chagrin of India to stem the flow of Tibetans travelling
through Nepal to meet the Dalai Lama in Dharamshala.
Beijing recently increased its annual aid
to Nepal to USD 128 million from the previous USD 24 million.
The idea is to find a short route to Nepal
in order to access the vast Indian market in a short time. China may be trying
to involve Nepal in its Bangladesh-China-India-Myanmar project because New
Delhi has shown less enthusiasm for the BCIM project.
If the proposal becomes reality, bilateral
trade, especially in agricultural products, will get a strong boost, along with
tourism and people-to-people exchanges.
Potential link to India
From time to time, rumors of a land bridge
to India and Bangladesh have appeared in various Chinese newspapers.
Although the Chinese government never
planned an extension to India, many people have embarked on the possibility of
this. Qinghai People's Congress Vice Secretary General Liu Palit is one of
them. In an interview to 21st Century Business Herald, he supported a motion to
establish a connection between the Pacific and Indian railway bridge on land,
possibly linking the east coast port city of Lianyungang, eastern China, Xi'an,
Lanzhou, Xining, Lhasa, Shigatse, through Nepal, and finally arriving in Patna,
New Delhi, Mumbai and Karachi, Pakistan.
If the idea of the railway in Nepal's
plains becomes reality, it can easily connect with the Indian railway network
and further to Bangladesh.
Engineering Challenges
The QTR posed great engineering challenges.
Working in the cold and in the high altitude with men and machines had to be
addressed. Scores of workers were hospitalized due to exhaustion and altitude
sickness. Others suffered from frostbite while working in the winter.
Four-fifths of the QTR is above 4,000
meters and over half the tracks were laid on ground that is frozen much of the
year, with 345 miles on permafrost. The highest pass traversed by the train is
5,072 meters (16,737 feet). Parts of it climb through an earthquake zone in the
Kunlun mountains. A magnitude 8.1 earthquake struck in 2001. Dozens of
earthquake monitors have been installed along the railway.
About half of the second section of the QTR
was built on permanent permafrost. In the summer, the uppermost layer thaws,
and the ground becomes muddy. The heat from the trains passing above is able to
melt the permafrost even with a small change in temperature. The main
engineering challenge, aside from oxygen shortages, was the weakness of the
permafrost. For areas of permafrost that are not very fragile, an embankment of
large rocks was sufficient. Meanwhile, in the most fragile areas, the rail bed
must be elevated like a bridge. The engineers dealt with this problem in the
areas of weakest permafrost by building elevated tracks with pile-driven
foundations sunk deep into the ground. Similar to the Trans-Alaska Pipeline
System, portions of the track were also passively cooled with ammonia-based
heat exchangers.
Special technology was developed to prevent
the tracks from buckling when temperatures drop to -37oC and to keep bridges
and tracks stable as the ground shifts when it freezes and thaws. The entire
length of track is placed an average of 25 feet above the permafrost,
separating it from the areas that freeze and thaw daily and preventing damaging
warps, buckles and strains.
Much of the track is raised on causeways or
cooled with pipes that circulate liquid nitrogen and cool air beneath the rails
and keep them frozen throughout the year. Some sections have metal sunshades
that deflect the sun. In tunnels the earth is frozen artificially with
refrigeration devices. In some places cooling agents are pumped through pipes
deep in the ground.
The train is pulled by three
diesel-powered, 3,800-horsepower engines made by General Electric, USA. They
have been adapted to carry 15 carriages and a generator car to altitudes of
more than 5,000 meters, where the locomotives achieve only 60 percent of their
usual power because of thin air. The carriages have underbellies that protect
the wiring from sand and dust storms, and complex ventilation systems that draw
in air and release nitrogen while oxygen is pumped in the compartments.
The integrity and strength of the railroad
is not fully secure. Due to climate change, temperatures in the Tibetan Plateau
will increase by an estimated two to three degrees Celsius. This change is
sufficient to melt the permafrost and, thereby, affect the integrity of the
entire system. The effects of climate change have yet to be seen.
The air in Tibet is much thinner, with
oxygen partial pressure being 35 to 40 per cent below MSL. Special passenger
carriages are used, and several oxygen factories were built along the railway.
Each seat in the train is equipped with an oxygen supply outlet. The Chinese
government claimed that no construction worker died during the construction due
to altitude sickness related diseases but reality is different.
