China's plans rail link to Nepal thru Mt Everest could concern India

Ray

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China's plans to build rail link with Nepal through Mt Everest could concern India

BEIJING: China plans to build a 540-kilometre strategic high-speed rail link between Tibet and Nepal passing through a tunnel under Mt Everest, a move that could raise alarm in India about the Communist giant's growing influence in its neighbourhood.

This is the first time a tunnel plan has been revealed because China had earlier discussed extending the Qinghai-Lhasa line to the Nepalese border without digging a tunnel.

"A proposed extension of the Qinghai-Tibet Railway to the China-Nepal border through Tibet would boost bilateral trade and tourism as there is currently no rail line linking the two countries," state-run China Daily reported on Thursday.

READ ALSO: China raises Nepal aid 5-fold to compete with India

"The line will probably have to go through Qomolangma so that workers may have to dig some very long tunnels," railway expert Wang Mengshu told the China Daily, referring to Mount Everest by its Tibetan name.

The idea is to find a short route to Nepal in order to access the vast Indian market in a short time, sources said. China may be trying to involve Nepal in its Bangladesh-China-India-Myanmar project because New Delhi has shown less enthusiasm for the BCIM project, they said.

The Lhasa line was extended to Xigaze, the second biggest city in Tibet, which is closer to the Nepalese border as Chinese authorities completed a 253-km long link railway line in August last year.

Restrained by rugged Himalayan mountains with its "remarkable" changes in elevation, trains on the line would probably have a maximum speed of 120 kmph.

The Nepal rail project which has been taken up at Kathmandu's request will be completed by 2020, the newspaper cited a Tibetan official as saying. The project was discussed during the visit of Chinese foreign minister, Wang Yi, to Kathmandu in December, according to Nepalese reports.

"If the proposal becomes reality, bilateral trade, especially in agricultural products, will get a strong boost, along with tourism and people-to-people exchanges," the railway expert said.

China has been scaling up its ties with Nepal much to the chagrin of India to stem the flow of Tibetans travelling through Nepal to meet the Dalai Lama in Dharamshala.

READ ALSO: Modi woos Saarc nations, pledges slew of investments to counter China

Beijing recently increased its annual aid to Nepal to USD 128 million from the previous USD 24 million.

In another move involving India's neighborhood, China is likely to sign a deal to help Pakistan build a natural gas pipeline to Iran. The contract is expected to be signed during president Xi Jinping's upcoming visit to Islamabad.

China's plans to build rail link with Nepal through Mt Everest could concern India - The Times of India
It will be a great engineering feat if China manages to tunnel below Mt Everest.

It will open up tourism to Tibet but in so far as trade is concerned, it will be a win win for China and nothing really for Nepal since it goes nowhere as far as Nepal is concerned.

The link will also allow quick military movement for China into Nepal, if it becomes necessary.

Western tourists wanting to visit Tibet and Xinjiang will find this a less expensive trip and would flood these two areas, if China permits them to do so. It will also open up espionage activity of western intelligence agencies since they will pose as tourists on a cash low, back pack brigade.

For India, the access to Nepal becoming easy, will surely be of concern since the Indo Nepal border is porous.

May read this in conjunction

China picking major infrastructure deals in Nepal
Saibal Dasgupta,TNN | Dec 3, 2013, 06.10 AM IST

http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/...cture-deals-in-Nepal/articleshow/26761265.cms

And this
China raises Nepal aid 5-fold to compete with India
http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/...o-compete-with-India/articleshow/45652472.cms

And this
Narendra Modi woos Saarc nations, pledges slew of investments to counter China
http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/...nts-to-counter-China/articleshow/45305542.cms
 
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Sylex21

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Re: China's plans rail link toNepal thro' Mt Everest could concern Ind

Can't limit this sort of thing, the whole world will be connected soon. Not so much an issue of spies, as China could do this anyways. Easy to bomb a few tracks if military movement is a concern, it becomes one hell of a choke point. Probably over hyped worry here.
 

roma

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Re: China's plans rail link toNepal thro' Mt Everest could concern Ind

with china economy said to be encountering some slow down in future years
these projects will keep the people busy and employed

fortunately these projects are happening while india is on the rise and not when china
had nuke energy and india was undeveloped eg in the 70's when Mao had wanted to
blast the himalayas off with nukes to allow the moist air to reach china and reduce their
desertification problems .....sounded crazy but looks like now they are
taking those first steps .

india has got to ask Nepal why we are looking after your . defense and then you go
inviting china to this that and the other .....

perhaps we should reduce helping them in defence and merely have our own forces
at strategic points nearby ....use nepal as a radiation buffer ...if china enters, radiate nepal as
a defense strategy .....same goes for Bhutan if they get the same smarty-pants ideas

in fact long term high level radiation should be considered as a defence strategy throughout our
border areas with china

india cannot afford to and should not delay in developing thermonukes and high yield
radiation weapons - absolutely vital to our ability to bargain in pre-war defence negotiations

the difference between china and india here is that they put their people to high-level
imoressive projects while we allow ours to sit idly by

we need a leader who can emulate china's daring - it might not be modi -

like the jews we may have longer to wait for that leader .
 
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sgarg

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Re: China's plans rail link to Nepal thru Mt Everest could concern Ind

I would let China build road and rail links. There is no point criticizing such connectivity projects. In fact past Indian governments have made a mistake by not connecting major Nepalese cities by rail.
 

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