|
Beijing: A controversial railway to Lhasa is still losing money with passenger traffic nearly disappearing from April to June following violent demonstrations in the Tibetan capital, railway officials said on Saturday.
The train line from Golmud to Lhasa, inaugurated on July 1, 2006, will be extended to the monastery town of Shigatse and resource-rich Nyingchi in the southeast within the next two or three years.
Heavy losses
"Our experience with other lines holds true for this one too, that the initial benefit is economic and social," said Bai Xiaochun, party secretary of the Qinghai-Tibet Railway Co, who estimated the 30 billion yuan (Dh16 billion) line is losing 1.2 billion yuan a year.
China says the rail line will help bring economic development to ethnically distinct Tibet. Tibetan activists say it speeds the immigration of Han Chinese to Lhasa and the plateau, and allows increased exploitation of Tibet's significant mineral resources.
|
