Govt keeping watch on China's ''highway'' project

New Delhi, Sep 5 (UNI) The government today said it was keeping a constant watch on all developments, including China's proposed plan to build a ''highway'' in Tibet Autonomous Region leading to Mount Everest, having a bearing on the country's security.

In a written reply in the Rajya Sabha, Defence Minister A K Antony said China's official news agency Xinhua had reported on June 19 that Beijing would begin building a ''highway'' in Tibet to ease the path of those bearing the Olympic torch.

Quoting the report, Mr Antony said construction of the road would kick off at Everest base camp.

''The project aims to turn a 108-km rough road linking Tingri County of Xigaze prefecture at the foot of the mountain to the base camp into a blacktop highway fenced by undulating guardrails,'' he said.

Mr Antony assured the House that the government kept a constant watch on all developments having a bearing on the country's security and had been taking necessary measures to safeguard it.

The minister was replying to a query from Congress member Santosh Bagrodia whether the government had taken into cogniance infrastructure and increased linkages being created on the Chinese side of the border that could be used for military purposes.

Chinese Culture Minister Sun Jiazheng, who was recently in the national capital, had defended his government's ''audacious'' project to build a metalled road to the Mount Everest base camp before the 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 said.

Environmentalists have raised serious concerns over the project, saying the construction of the 108-km road to a height of 5200 meters, was fraught with serious implications for the eco-system in the region.

They fear that a blacktop road in the ecologically fragile area can wreak havoc in several respects.

''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 pointed out.

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 the Mount Everest.

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

UNI