Crossing Himalayas: new trade route links northwest China, South Asia

By Xinhua Writer Lin Wei, Dronla

Ten years ago, the highest railway in the world (Sky Road) was built to reach Tibet, the roof of the world. Today the Sky Road is becoming the most important part of a new trade route to connect China to the other side of the Himalayas.

The new trade route, a Sino-Nepal transportation initiative, starts from Lanzhou in northwest China, a key city along the ancient Silk Road, and reaches to Kathmandu in Nepal, already bridging the Belt and Road regions.

The bold initiative will improve and streamline existing transportation infrastructure along the corridor between China, Nepal and other South Asian countries.The present route is a train-truck journey, currently divided into three sections. The first segment is a 2,431 km-long section of rail between Lanzhou and Xigaze in Tibet, a remarkable engineering feat that has operated reliably for a decade. Yet, in the second section, stretching from Xigaze to China's Gyirong Port, bordering with Nepal, paved roads cross over 564 kilometers and presently pose transportation challenges and bottlenecks.Finally, the third section, paved roads cross 164 kilometers from Gyirong Port in China to Kathmandu, Nepal. Travel time in the mountainous areas of Tibet and Nepal are heavily depended on weather, which can bring unexpected avalanches and and landslides. (See table for travel time for each section during clear conditions.) And although the second and third segments of the route may, at times, be challenging, authorities guarantee that these roads will be open always and repaired when necessary. Nonetheless, planned improvements will dramatically reduce travel time across the entire corridor.

From Lanzhou to Kathmandu, the entire one-way journey takes less than 10 days in clear conditions, making it a very important transportation corridor by slashing current shipping time by land and sea by 35 days, despite the potential challenges posed to drivers along these routes.

According to Gyirong Port authorities, the first shipments have successfully reached Gyirong Port where vehicles require immigration and customs clearance to pass into Nepal. To date, 550 tonnes of cargo has reached Nepal from Lanzhou and is valued at 4 million yuan.

Moreover, for the first quarter of this year, the value of exports from China to Nepal through Gyirong Port have topped 500 million yuan, or more than 5.5 million yuan a day. The trade volume is expected to boom following the improvements undertaken as a part of the Belt and Road Initiative, which will bring economic improvements, jobs and tourism along the corridor.

Tibet's role

Tibet will become the biggest beneficiary of expanding trade between northwest China and South Asia resulting from the extension of the existing Sky Road railway corridor from Xigaze to Gyirong Port under China's 13th Five Year Plan (2016-2020). These transportation infrastructure investments will greatly reduce the time and increase the reliability of transportation along the new trade route.

Deputy head of Xigaze Transportation Bureau Zhang Hongdong has highlighted the importance of the corridor in helping the economy of Xigaze connect to South Asia which will benefit the local economy and provide new jobs and higher incomes to citizens of local cities and villages that line the route.

Lhasa deputy mayor Fang Guilin said the capital city of Tibet could extend even further to the North and South and reach as far as Mid-Asia, West Asia and Europe.

More importantly, significant investments in transportation and infrastructure as well as goods and services are expected to accompany the expansion of trade along the new route, including port facility expansion, establishment of modern storage and logistics, and financial and tourism services. At the same time, Tibet is building more railway lines along the new trade route which will relieve transportation bottlenecks.

Beyond Sky Road

Several other initiatives will improve transportation and trade with China's partners including the Sichuan-Tibet Railway and the railway from Xigaze to Ya Dong, an old and important port bordering India.

China's commitments to expanding and enhancing transportation and trade are substantial. The 160 billion yuan budget for all these projects represents the largest investment in the national transportation action plan in the next three years, giving the land-locked Tibet an important role in connecting the Yangtze River Economic Belt to South Asia.

Table 2: Current travel time under clear conditions