BEIJING:
Electric Bullet Train Inauguration in China: China launched its first fully electric powered bullet train on Friday in Tibet's remote Himalayan terrain. The bullet train runs between Lhasa, the province capital, and Nyingchi, a strategically positioned Tibetan border town near Arunachal Pradesh. The Lhasa-Nyingchi stretch of the Sichuan-Tibet Railway has been combined ahead of the reigning Communist Party of China's July 1 festivities.
Nyingchi is a town overseen by an appointed prefect by the Chinese government in Medog, on the Arunachal Pradesh border. Arunachal Pradesh is claimed by China to be a part of South Tibet.
India has categorically denied the accusations. The India-China border dispute stems from China's assertion that Arunachal Pradesh is part of South Tibet, which India categorically denies. The India-China border dispute extends over the 3,488-kilometer-long Line of Actual Control (LAC).
The Bullet train is the first electrified railway in the Tibet Autonomous Region to be operational. The Sichuan-Tibet Railway will be the second railway entering Tibet after the Qinghai-Tibet Railway, which will go through the southeast of the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau, which is said to be one of the world's most active geolocations.
In November of last year, Chinese President Xi Jinping instructed officials to hasten the building of a new railway project between Sichuan Province and Nyingchi in Tibet, stating that the new train line would be a major actor in preserving the border interests and tranquillity.
"If a scenario of a crisis happens at the China-India border, the railway will provide a great convenience for China's delivery of strategic materials," Qian Feng, head of the research department at Tsinghua University's National Strategy Institute, told the official newspaper Global Times, according to PTI.
According to Xinhua news agency, the travel time between Lhasa and Nyingchi has been reduced from five hours to approximately 3.5 hours by the train, and the travel time between Shannan, one of the stations where the train will stop, and Nyingchi has been reduced from six hours to approximately two hours.
The Sichuan-Tibet Railway originates in Chengdu, the capital of Sichuan Province, and continues via Ya'an before entering Tibet through Qamdo. The travel time from Chengdu to Lhasa has been cut from 48 hours to 13 hours.
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