Doesn't China have the Qinghai-Tibet Railway? Why bother to spend a lot of money to build the second railway to Tibet? After all, 300 billion is not a small amount of money. Therefore, let’s talk about what the plan of the Sichuan-Tibet Railway is like, and why China must start building a second railway to Tibet.

The Sichuan-Tibet Railway with a total investment of over 300 billion

Many people used to think that there was only one way to go to Tibet, because the process of building the Qinghai-Tibet Railway was too arduous, and there were railways in addition to roads, so logically speaking, it should be enough. But the country doesn't think so. In such a huge Tibet, there is only one railway to connect to the outside world, which is too shabby. In this way, in 2011, at the National People's Congress, the topic of research and construction of the Sichuan-Tibet Railway was raised, and in 2013 the construction of the Chengpu Railway Section started. From then on, the construction plan for the second heavenly road was officially launched. Due to the complex geological conditions of the area along the railway, it is impossible to repair it all at once, so the Sichuan-Tibet Railway is divided into three sections, namely the section from Chengdu to Ya'an, the section from Ya'an to Nyingchi, and the section from Nyingchi to Lhasa.

At present, only the Ya'an-Linzhi section is still under construction. It is a new main line that will start construction in November 2020. The length of the main line can reach 1,011 kilometers. According to the State Council's public instructions for approving relevant plans, the total investment of the entire Sichuan-Tibet Railway is about 319.8 billion yuan. Obviously, compared with the Qinghai-Tibet Railway, which had a total investment of only 33 billion yuan before, this is indeed a bit expensive, which is already about ten times. Because of this, many people are skeptical about the construction of the Sichuan-Tibet Railway, thinking that there is no need for us to build a second railway to Tibet. Could it be that we are really spending money doing useless work?

Why must it be repaired

The total area of Tibet is 1,202,800 square kilometers, which accounts for about 1/8 of the total land area of the country. Because it is located in a plateau area, its resident population is only 3.66 million, making it a notoriously sparsely populated place. Judging from the proportion of the population, it seems that a railway and a highway can already meet people's travel needs, but the rich resources contained in Tibet have long put forward higher requirements for transportation. The country also considered various needs and decided to build the Sichuan-Tibet Railway, using the three major layouts to seize the commanding heights.

First of all, from the perspective of energy, we must have excellent transportation methods to transport the resources from Tibet, a treasure land, to build a country. According to the data, there are many kinds of resources in Tibet, and the resource reserves are quite rich, such as mineral resources, land resources, water resources, forest resources, energy resources and so on. Among them, what everyone pays more attention to should be mineral resources and energy resources. After all, the value brought by these two is obvious. In terms of mineral resources, there are as many as 101 types of minerals in Tibet, of which only 22 have been developed and utilized. This means that there are still a large number of mineral resources waiting for people to develop.

Looking at energy resources again, a new energy revolution has quietly started around the world, and China is also actively preparing for energy transition, hoping to achieve carbon neutrality as soon as possible through the development of various new energy sources.

In this case, the Tibet region may be the key, why do you say that? Because today's hot new energy is mainly clean energy, including water energy, geothermal energy, solar energy, wind energy, nuclear energy and so on. Among them, except for nuclear energy, the Tibet region has basically taken over. Taking water energy as an example, the water system in Tibet is very developed. After all, the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau has always been called the water tower of Asia. Furthermore, due to the very large difference in terrain, the region is also extremely rich in hydropower resources, and its hydropower resource reserves are expected to reach 200 million kilowatts.

It can be seen that the resources in the Tibet region are indeed too rich, and in order to develop these resources, it is necessary to make it easier to communicate with the outside world. Building the second railway to Tibet is undoubtedly the correct choice. At that time, my country's energy layout will also undergo certain changes, and new clean energy will be the mainstay.

Secondly, it is considered from the perspective of China's transportation layout. The transportation construction in the western region of my country has been obviously lagging behind. When the developed central and southern regions are already in a mess, the western region is still blank. In the past, it would have been fine if the transportation was limited to the domestic area, but since the concept of the Belt and Road Initiative was proposed, it is very important for the transportation network in Tibet to become increasingly mature. The construction of the Sichuan-Tibet Railway is conducive to promoting exchanges between my country and most Eurasian countries and promoting their economic development in a better direction.

Finally, consider the strategic layout. Although the world is generally relatively peaceful today, the situation is often changing rapidly. The strategic status of Tibet has always been very high. After all, it is located on the border of China, so if any dispute arises, we need to have a large-capacity vehicle to transport officers, soldiers and resources to Tibet to ensure that the border is in a safe state. .

In addition, the construction of the Sichuan-Tibet Railway is also beneficial to the people in Tibetan areas, and can effectively change the local closed state. You must know that when the Lhasa-Nyingchi section of the Sichuan-Tibet Railway was not completed, there was no railway in southeastern Tibet. It was still very difficult for local people to travel, and it was also difficult for outsiders to travel. The completion of the Qinghai-Tibet Railway has driven the development of tourism in Tibet, and the strength of the Sichuan-Tibet Railway must not be underestimated. At least in terms of passenger transport capacity, it is quite high. I believe that after the Sichuan-Tibet Railway is fully built and opened, the income of the tertiary industry in Tibet will usher in a new high!

In general, when the Sichuan-Tibet Railway is completed, our country will be able to rely on the overall planning of the three major layouts to seize the commanding heights. In the future, whether it is energy, national defense or economics, it will be able to achieve rapid development. Because of this, we cannot just focus on the huge investment in the early stage and ignore the long-term benefits of the opening of the Sichuan-Tibet Railway. After all, the benefits brought by these aspects are more than a mere 300 billion? It is worth mentioning that the planning of the Xinjiang-Tibet Railway is also in full swing. I hope that in the future we can really travel around Xinjiang and Tibet by train and see how beautiful the frontier of the motherland is! Editor/He Yuting