The first Qinghai-Tibet rail link, which started operation in 2006, is the world’s highest and longest plateau railroad. AFP file photo

Beijing, March 5

China will build a second railway line connecting restive and remote Tibet with others parts of the country, expanding its connectivity with the Himalayan region.The link between Tibetan capital Lhasa and China’s southwestern city of Chengdu will increase China’s strategic options to rapidly move troops to the borders with India.The railway link was announced in a draft of China’s new five-year development plan released at the opening of the annual meeting of parliament and carried by the official Xinhua news agency. It gave no other details.Reports said the new link will be 1,629-km and it would take about 15 hours for trains to travel between Lhasa and Chengdu.The plan is to be implemented from this year after its approval. The new rail line is in addition to the Qinghai-Tibet Railway linking Tibet with inland regions of China.“We hope that the railway will be completed as early as possible. It will provide new momentum for our development, especially the tourism,” said Wangdui, a national lawmaker and mayor of Tibet’s Nyingchi City, where the new railway will traverse.Critics of the railway, including exiled Tibetans and rights groups, say it has spurred an influx of long-term migrants who threaten Tibetans’ cultural integrity, which rests on Buddhist beliefs and a traditional herding lifestyle.Tibet is a sensitive region, not just because of continued opposition by many Tibetans to Chinese control, but because of the region’s strategic position next to neighbours India, Nepal and Myanmar. —  Agencies