Good for China and Nepal ! Also good for Xizang.西 藏！
"PaPaPeng" <PaPaPeng@[EMAIL PROTECTED]
> wrote in message
news:qeol24h1572fi9n8knbm4mfm7pholnimrj@[EMAIL PROTECTED]
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>
>
> Nepal goes on China rail map
> Nepal, long dependant on India for its links with the rest of the
> world, will soon be tied into the Chinese rail network. The gains to
> the small landlocked state are clear, while the route will bring
> Indian ****ts and markets much closer to Beijing. All that is needed
> for cross-Himalayan trade to thrive is a sea-change in New Delhi's
> laggardly approach to building infrastructure on its side of the
> mountains. - Sudha Ramachandran
>
>
> Nepal to get China rail link
> By Sudha Ramachandran
> May 15, 2008
> http://www.atimes.com/atimes/South_Asia/JE15Df01.html
>
>
> BANGALORE - China has begun building a railway connecting the Tibetan
> capital of Lhasa with the market town of Khasa on the Sino-Nepal
> border. The rail link, the latest Chinese initiative to improve its
> trans****t infrastructure in the Himalayan region, is expected to
> enhance Nepal's economic engagement with China and reduce its
> dependence on India.
>
> The 770-kilometer Lhasa-Khasa railway line is an extension of the
> world's highest railway, which runs from Golmud in China's Qinghai
> province to Lhasa. Inaugurated in August 2006, the Golmud-Lhasa rail
> integrated Tibet into China's national rail network. With its
> extension up to the Nepal border, Nepal will be plugged into China's
> rail network.
>
> Landlocked Nepal has hitherto largely been dependent on India for
> im****ts. With trains from China soon reaching its border, Nepal will
> find im****ting from its northern neighbor easier. Sino-Nepal trade
> will expand exponentially, at India's expense.
>
> Road and rail building has been a key component of the Chinese grand
> strategy in the Himalayan region for decades. Building motorable roads
> into Tibet began as early as 1950, in line with Mao Zedong's orders to
> the People's Liberation Army as it prepared to annex the territory:
> "Advance while building roads."
>
> The construction of roads linking Tibet with Qinghai, Sichuan,
> Xinjiang and Yunnan was achieved against all odds and at great human
> cost. But it enabled Beijing to pour troops into Tibet to quell
> unrest, provide supplies to soldiers deployed there, consolidate its
> control over Tibet and integrate the area economically with China.
>
> Now the focus is on improving Tibet's connectivity with South Asia,
> flattening, as it were, the Himalayan barrier to overland trade.
>
> Besides the Lhasa-Khasa railway, China is said to be considering an
> extension of the Golmu-Lhasa line up to Xigaze, south of Lhasa and
> from there to Yatung, a trading center, barely a few kilometers from
> Nathu La, a mountain pass that connects Tibet with the Indian state of
> Sikkim. There is a proposal too to extend the line to Nyingchi, an
> im****tant trading town north of the Indian state of Arunachal Pradesh,
> at the tri-junction with Myanmar.
>
> These rail lines will bring Chinese trains up to Sikkim and Arunachal
> Pradesh - two Indian states that figure prominently on the radar of
> Sino-Indian disputes. China claims 90,000 square kilometers of
> territory in the eastern Himalayas, roughly approximating to Arunachal
> Pradesh, and Chinese incursions are re****ted here frequently. As for
> Sikkim, it is only since 2004 that China has implicitly recognized its
> integration into India. Not only does Sikkim share borders with Nepal,
> Tibet and Bhutan but also it is situated above the "Chicken's Neck" -
> the sliver of land that links India with its northeastern states.
>
> The extension of the railway to the Sino-Indian border at Sikkim and
> Arunachal could pose a threat to India's security and economy if New
> Delhi fails to build its own network here to match the Chinese, Indian
> analysts say.
>
> In July 2006, Sino-Indian border trade was resumed at Nathu La in
> Sikkim after a gap of 44 years. Officials in the Sikkim government
> told Asia Times Online that compared with China's elaborate network of
> roads and planned railway to Nathu La, "on this side of the border the
> state of infrastructure is laughable".
>
> One said: "When trade takes off in a big way in a few years, goods by
> the train-load will arrive at Nathu La from China. India will be in a
> position then to send back mere truck-loads."
>
> Sikkim has only one road - a 56-kilometer single-lane link - linking
> its capital Gangtok to Nathu La, and one landslide-prone road, just
> five meters wide, joining the area with the rest of India. Sikkim's
> road density is 28.45 kilometers per 100 square kilometer against the
> national average of 84 kilometers. Arunachal Pradesh is even worse
> off, with a road density of just 18.65 kilometers per 100 square
> kilometer.
>
> India's rail network is the world's most extensive but it does not
> penetrate the border-states of Sikkim, Tripura, Meghalaya, Mizoram and
> Arunachal Pradesh. The situation in the other northeastern states is
> only marginally better.
>
> Economists and security experts have been warning that Delhi is
> napping while China is set to chug up to the Sino-Indian border.
> Government officials, for their part, point to innumerable proposed
> road and rail projects. "The feasibility of some road and rail links
> is being studied, some projects have been sanctioned and others are
> being executed," a senior government official in Delhi told Asia Times
> Online.
>
> India does plan to expand its rail links with Nepal, proposing to
> extend across the Nepal border to Kathmandu the rail line at present
> connecting Raxaul in Bihar state with Birganj. Trucks carrying Indian
> goods from Birganj to Kathmandu have to travel 220 kilometers. A train
> from Birganj to Kathmandu that cuts through mountains will be a mere
> 80 kilometers, cutting travel time and costs.
>
> The technical and financial feasibility of five other routes -
> Nautanwa in India to Bhairahwa in Nepal, Nepalgunj Road to Nepalgunj,
> Jogbani to Biratnagar, New Jalpaiguri to Kakrabitta and Jayanagar to
> Bardibas - is being studied.
>
> India also plans to run rail links to Bhutan, which like Nepal is
> landlocked and sandwiched between India and China. There are plans to
> connect Hasimara in India with Phuentsholing in Bhutan, Banarhat to
> Samtse, Rangia to Samdrup Jongkhar, Kokrajhar to Gelephu and Pathsala
> to Nanglam.
>
> In Sikkim, the Gangtok-Nathu La road is being widened and the
> government has sanctioned another linking Sikkim with the rest of
> India to be built.
>
> In Arunachal Pradesh, air****ts will be built in the state capital
> Itanagar and another at Tawang, a district which is seen as holding
> the key to the Sino-Indian border dispute. India is also constructing
> a 1,840 kilometer trans-Arunachal highway touching India's borders
> with China, Bhutan and Myanmar and a rail network.
>
> This array of road and rail-building projects looks positive on paper
> but completion targets may prove fickle, if the experience of the
> strife-torn states of Jammu and Kashmir and Manipur is any guide.
> Trains were supposed to be running in the Kashmir Valley by last
> August, but that now looks unlikely to happen for another five years
> at least.
>
> In comparison, road and rail projects in China are completed quickly
> and often ahead of time. The Golmud-Lhasa line was ready a year ahead
> of schedule. "China begins implementation of projects quickly," a
> Sikkim government official said. A month after the inauguration of the
> Golmud-Lhasa railway, China promised the Nepal government that it
> would extend this line up to the Sino-Nepal border. "Less than two
> years after that promise was made, work has begun," the official said.
> "And it will be completed in five years."
>
> Indian railway construction officials blame difficult, mountainous
> terrain for the delay in projects. About 120 kilometer of the 292
> kilometer Kashmir railway line consists of tunnels; delaying matters
> further, several are re****ted to have collapsed during construction.
> Yet the much longer Golmud-Lhasa rail runs through far more
> treacherous terrain and climatic conditions and was completed on time.
>
> India's road and rail projects in the Himalayan region often run
> through insurgency-wracked regions, with security concerns adding to
> delays. The Kashmir rail line has come under repeated attacks and at
> least two Indian railway employees have been in efforts to halt the
> project.
>
> Economists have said the Indian government has been shortsighted in
> *****sing the benefits and feasibility of projects. The Bhutan rail
> link may attract too little passenger and goods traffic to justify the
> cost and the Sikkim link may also serve merely border trade at Nathu
> La.
>
> Compare that with the benefits to China of a Nathu La link, which will
> open access to the Indian ****t of Kolkata and to markets in the Indian
> plains, Myanmar and Southeast Asia.
>
> Parts of the Indian establishment also fear that building an extensive
> road/rail network along the country's northern borders will help
> Chinese good to flood Indian markets - overlooking the op****tunities
> for India in the opposite direction.
>
> Sudha Ramachandran is an independent journalist/researcher based in
> Bangalore.
>
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