China is set to build one of the world’s most ambitious rail projects, a new line linking Xinjiang province with Tibet, part of which will run near the Line of Actual Control (LAC) with India.
The state-owned Xinjiang-Tibet Railway Company (XTRC) has been registered with a capital of 95 billion yuan (USD 13.2 billion) and will be wholly owned by China State Railway Group to oversee construction and operations, according to a Hong Kong-based media report.
The registered capital represents initial funding. By comparison, the 1,800 km Sichuan-Tibet Railway required an estimated 320 billion yuan (USD 45 billion) to build.
Hubei-based Huayuan Securities noted that the project aims to establish a 5,000 km plateau rail framework centred on Lhasa by 2035.
"Parts of the route will also run near the China-India Line of Actual Control (LAC), the de facto border between the two countries, giving it defensive importance in a frontier area with less infrastructure than the rest of China,” the report said.
In December 2024, China created two new counties, including one that covers a large part of Aksai Chin, a region New Delhi says is its territory but has been under Chinese occupation.
India maintains that China illegally occupied about 38,000 sq. km of land in Aksai Chin, now partly incorporated into the newly established administrative divisions.
China has built the Xinjiang-Tibet highway, or G219, through the disputed Aksai Chin area, a flashpoint in the 1962 war.
The Xinjiang-Tibet Railway is one of four planned lines connecting Tibet with the rest of China. Tibet already has a rail link to Qinghai, with construction continuing on routes to Sichuan and Yunnan.
Its high-speed rail network from Lhasa extends close to the Arunachal Pradesh border.
Plans for the new line come as Beijing and New Delhi are normalising ties after over four years of a freeze in relations following the military standoff in Eastern Ladakh in 2020.
Relations began improving after Prime Minister Modi met Chinese President Xi Jinping on the sidelines of last year’s BRICS summit in Russia.
Modi is scheduled to attend the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation summit beginning August 31.
The new train route will connect the existing Lhasa-Shigatse line with a new Hotan-Shigatse section, forming a roughly 2,000 km strategic artery linking northwestern and southwestern China.
It will average over 4,500 metres in elevation, passing through the Kunlun, Karakoram, Kailash and Himalayan ranges, crossing glaciers, frozen rivers and permafrost.
Winter temperatures on the Tibetan Plateau can drop to -40 degrees celsius with oxygen levels at just 44 per cent of inland regions. The project faces challenges such as accelerated machinery wear, high logistics costs and environmental conservation needs.
Planning for the Xinjiang-Tibet line began in 2008 when it was added to China’s “Medium and Long-Term Railway Network Plan.”
Survey and design tenders for the Hotan-Shigatse section were launched in May 2022. Ministry of transport officials confirmed in April that construction was expected to get underway this year, the report said.
China is also investing over $ 40 billion in a high-speed rail line linking Chengdu to Lhasa through the Himalayas, which will cut travel time from 34 hours to 13, the Wall Street Journal reported recently.
The dual-use nature of such infrastructure has raised concerns in New Delhi and among defence analysts worldwide.
The Chinese military’s Western Theater Command covers about 2.6 million square miles, more than 80 per cent of the contiguous United States.
Much of this region was remote until China built thousands of miles of roads across Tibet, accelerating construction in recent years.
China’s first major Tibetan rail line, the $ 4 billion Shanghai-Tibet Railroad, was completed in 2006.
The ongoing Sichuan-Tibet Railway project is considered far more strategic, linking the headquarters of the PLA’s Western Theater Command with Lhasa for rapid troop movement and logistics.
Tibet remains a focal point of Chinese infrastructure expansion.
Beijing recently began building the world’s biggest dam over the Brahmaputra River in ecologically fragile Tibet, close to Arunachal Pradesh, costing about $170 billion.
The project has raised concerns in India and Bangladesh, but China maintains it will not harm downstream countries.
The infrastructure drive comes amid shifting diplomatic currents.
The US President Donald Trump imposed a whopping 50 per cent tariff on India on Wednesday, citing its purchases of Russian oil, and called India’s economy “dead.”
He also gave Pakistan equal standing while attempting to mediate between the South Asian rivals, drawing resentment in India.
These developments have contributed to New Delhi’s renewed engagement with Beijing, despite continued strains over the border and China’s backing of Pakistan during recent military escalations.