China lawmaker proposes new links to Tibet railroad

BEIJING, Mar 11 (Reuters) A planner for China's remote Qinghai province has proposed building a rail link between lines running to Tibet and to the western border region of Xinjiang, the Xinhua news agency said today.

Zhang Shoucheng, vice director of the provincial Development and Reform Commission and a delegate to the rubber-stamp National People's Congress, said the link should be constructed between Qinghai's potassium mining city of Golmud and Dunhuang, in Gansu province, which is home to famous Buddhist grottoes.

The 481-km (299-mile) link, costing 6.7 billion yuan (5 million), would connect a rail line running from Lanzhou, capital of Gansu, up the ancient Silk Road to Xinjiang and central Asia with a newly completed railway to Lhasa, the Tibetan capital.

The new line to Tibet has opened up rail access to the Tibet-Qinghai Plateau's rich mineral resources.

Construction begins this year on an 11 billion yuan, 254-km extension to Shigatse, southwest of Lhasa, that is slated to be completed in 2010.

The train to Tibet drew international criticism for penetrating environmentally sensitive areas and for further opening up culturally distinct Tibet to increased migration by Han Chinese.

Beijing says the railway will bring prosperity and modernity to the impoverished region.

A direct link from Golmud to Dunhuang would have to traverse high deserts, mountain ranges and the steep drop from the plateau to the Gansu corridor.

REUTERS SB PM1418