Chinese minister defends Mt Everest base camp road project

New Delhi, Jun 20 (UNI) Chinese Culture Minister Sun Jiazheng today defended his government's audacious project to build a metalled road to the Mount Everest base camp before next year's Olympic Games, saying it was an ambitious infrastructure venture that would greatly benefit the people in the region.

''The purpose of this new infrastructure project is to make it more convenient for those who would try to make an assault on the world's highest peak,'' Mr Sun told reporters here on the sidelines of an event for signing a Cultural Exchange Programme with India.

Pointing out that development of infrastructure was an important policy of the Chinese government, he said the project was for the ''well-being of the people''.

He, however, refused to comment on the observation that the project was fraught with serious environmental implications even as Tourism and Culture Minister Ambika Soni, who was also present, asked reporters to confine their queries to ''matters cultural and nothing else.'' The construction of the 108-km road to a height of 5200 meters, slated to begin within a week, is to be completed within four months.

A major objective of the project is to transport the Olympic Torch to the base camp, from where Chinese runners -- most possibly mountaineers -- will carry it to Mount Everest.

The project, which has security implications for India, has also triggered a wave of animated protests from environmentalists, who fear that a blacktop road in the ecologically fragile area can wreak havoc.

''The construction of metalled road will mean more people, more burning of fuel, more construction and more refuse in an area whose ecosystem is fragile and already threatened,'' they point out.

In any case, the project, once completed, will be nothing short of an engineering marvel that can favourably compete with the world's highest Beijing-Lhasa railway project.

UNI