Cross the Himalayas!The most difficult railway in the world is coming

Facing this century project

Both sides are actively exploring

China-Nepal's Himalayan cross-border "Sky Road" plan has the latest progress.

On August 11, a spokesman for the Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Wang Wenbin, confirmed at a regular press conference that in the talks, the Foreign Minister of China (Poor) unanimously stated that he would build a cross -Himalayan three -dimensional interconnection network.

After talking with Nepal's Foreign Minister Cardga, ​​Chinese State Councilor and Foreign Minister Wang Yi announced that China will use the feasibility study of Nienie Cross -border Railway to help Nigeron's aid money.

The above news not only gives the specific time for related work, but even clarifies that China provides funds and technical support for the construction of the Nepalese railway.

This means that the construction of a cross -border railway in the China -Nihiri Himalayan railway has taken a substantial step.

Earlier, the National Development and Reform Commission announced that the China -Nine Railway China section and the "New Tibetan Railway" co -line of planning and research in the "Middle and Long -term Railway Network Plan" will jointly form the new Tibetan Railway and Sichuan -Tibet Railway. Essence

It is worth noting that the construction of the Zhongni Railway must cross the Himalayas, which is by no means easy. Faced with this century project, both sides are actively exploring.

Take a substantial step

It is understood that the Sino -Nine Railway Channel includes China and Nepal. The line starts from the Latin Railway Shigatse West Station in the east. After the wrong, cross the Himalayas' Mountains, Mara Mountain to Kuala Town, cross the China Nini Port, and go to the Nepalese capital Kathmandu after leaving the country.

The Section of the Sino -Nine Railway Channel in the Kuala Railway Port is 443.8 kilometers.

Himalayas. Figure/Figure insect creativity

In fact, the source of this railway dates back to 1973. At that time, Birendra Bir BICKRAM Shah Dev, then the king of Nepal, visited Beijing, expressed his wanting to further strengthen the relationship with China. China responded that China will build the Qinghai -Tibet Railway to Lhasa and will eventually lead to Kathmandu.

But after that, the railway has been slowly advancing.

After the completion of the Qinghai -Tibet Railway in 2006, Nepal proposed again that he hoped that the railway could pass to the Nic -Nihiri border and hoped that it would promote the matter with China.

Until 2014, the extension of the Qinghai -Tibet Railway Lhasa to Shigatse was opened for operation. At the end of the year, China and Nepal extended the Qinghai -Tibet Railway to reach an agreement from the Nepalese border.

From March 29th to April 1st of the following year, Ram Baran Yadav, then Nepalese President Ram Baran Yadav, reiterated that he hopes that the two countries can further promote aviation and land interconnection, especially in particular, especially for Strengthen the interconnection of railways.

After 2016, the Zhongni Railway entered a stage of substantial progress.

In March 2016, then the Nepalese Prime Minister Khadga Prasad Sharma Oli (Khadga Prasad Sharma Oli) visited China. The competent government departments of the two sides stated that they would exchange the Cross -border Railway and Nigeria railways in the construction, and support enterprises to carry out preliminary preparations as soon as possible.

In June 2018, the governments of the China -Niqi government signed a cross -border railway cooperation agreement to determine the extension of Lhasa to Shigatse Railway to the capital of Nepal.

In October 2019, China and Nepal issued the "Joint Statement of the People's Republic of China and Nepal", which clearly launched the feasibility study of cross -border railway projects from Kualal to Nepal, Tibet, China.

Since then, Nepal has been paying attention to the progress of the Cross -border Railway, but the Sino -Nine Railway project has been affected by the epidemic, geological disasters and environmental protection, and has not been able to continue to advance.

On March 26 this year, the State Councilor and Foreign Minister Wang Yi held talks with Nepal's Foreign Minister Cardga in Kathmandu. Wang Yi emphasized that China supports Niger to participate in the construction of the "Belt and Road" more and is willing to accelerate the promotion of key cooperation projects, "Especially to promote the cross -border railway project of the China -Nine -border railway and build a cross -Himalayan three -dimensional interconnection network."

This time, the Chinese side stated that the construction of the Sino -Nine Railway has taken a substantial step.

Handling on both sides

In fact, whether it is China or Nepal, I have always looked forward to this railway.

Nepal is located on the southern foot of the Himalayas. Between China and India, there are no third neighbors.

The country's economy is based on agriculture and tourism, with a population of 29.67 million, and 80%of the population is engaged in agricultural production. In 2021, Nepal's GDP was only $ 36.3 billion, and the per capita GDP was only about 1,200 US dollars, ranking back in the world.

Nepal is located on the plateau, rugged mountains, and land traffic is underdeveloped. At present, from Kathmandu to the second largest city Bocara, only about 200 kilometers. Due to the inconvenience of roads, cars need to bump for about 7 hours.

After the completion of the China -Ni Nepal Railway, the three major cities of Nepal will be connected through the railway to greatly reduce traffic costs.

As an inland country, Nepal did not go out of the sea. Nowadays, sea transportation is the main way for international trade. The country with developed sea transportation is more prosperous in foreign trade, which has played a huge role in promoting the economy.

Nepal, which is troubled by backward transportation, hopes that it is more convenient to pass through the railway and overseas ports to open up the estuary. If the China -Nye Railway is realized, it will help promote the development of Nepal's economy, so that Nepal will be converted from a simple inland country to the "Nations". It is reported that the planned Zhongni Railway Channel to the south of Coco and the Indian Railway Network arrived in the Bay of Bangladesh, and in the west, it can pass through Xinjiang directly to Central Asia and Europe.

Therefore, for so many years, not only the local media in Nepal have paid great attention to the Nikon Railway, most of the Nepalese people also hope to strengthen their exchanges with China.

For China, the construction of the Zhongni Railway is equally significant. Cui Peng, an academician of the Chinese Academy of Sciences and a researcher at the Institute of Water Resources and Environment of the Ministry of Water Resources of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, has participated in the relevant scientific research tasks of the China -Ni Highway, and has participated in the evaluation and prevention of geological disaster assessment and prevention of geological disasters along the Zhongni Railway since 2015.

He told China News Weekly that the China -Nine Railway will help my country to open up the "Belt and Road" channel in South Asia and strengthen bilateral trade with Nepal.

The border between the Zhongni border is about 1,414 kilometers. The construction of the Zhongni Railway will build the South Asian land trade channel, which will become an important carrier to promote the development of the Himalayan economic cooperation zone. Essence

Challenge is difficult and complicated

The Himalayas are the highest altitude in the world. There are more than 110 mountain peaks up to 7,350 meters above sea level. Among them, 10 of the 14 peaks above 8000 meters above sea level are located here.

If the Zhongni Railway is completed, it will be the first railway through the Himalayas. Its difficulty in building will be a new challenge in the history of human railway construction.

Cui Peng talked that compared with the Qinghai -Tibet Railway and the Sichuan -Tibet Railway under construction, the challenges facing the Zhongni Railway were more difficult and complicated.

The Zhongni Railway is from Shigato to Khaedam, and the new construction movements and earthquakes along the route are strong, and the water heat conditions along the line have changed greatly. The glacier activities are strong. In the frequency of disasters such as mudslides, mountain disasters are harmful to cities and towns, population, and transportation lines in the corridor.

Cui Peng and his team discovered in many years of science test that there were more than 1,000 ice -water mudslides, ice lake collapse mudslides and rainfall mudslides developed along the China -Nine Railway. In Kuala Town, the density of disasters such as collapse, landslides, and mudslides is greater. "When the density is the largest, there is one kilometer."

It is reported that on July 11, 1981, the second Renma wrong ice lake in the Zhangzangbo Basin, Nieramu County, Tibet, and the collapse of Giant Disaster, destroying the Zhongni Friendship Bridge, and the flood destroyed the roads, bridges, and power stations along the way, causing downstream to downstream More than 200 people in Nepal died and disappeared, and the harm cannot be underestimated.

In addition, the main body of the Zhongni Railway route travels along the plateau and the canyon, through the deep season frozen soil and sporadic frozen soil. Affected by the increase in global climate warming and the increase in rainfall, the frozen soil has been rapidly degenerating for many years. Due to the melting of underground ice and increased precipitation, it is easy to induce frost and landslides and smooth disasters.

And due to the more common tunnels along the high altitude cold area along the line, the degradation of materials caused by the frozen cycle will cause potential harm to the safety of the tunnel. The frozen and swelling effects of the frozen soil area in the deep season will cause uneven sinking, cracks, and flipping of the road base. It will threaten the construction and operation of the Zhongni Railway.

At the same time, the Zhongni Railway should face a drop of more than 3,000 meters.

The average altitude of Tibet in my country is above 4,000 meters. From Shigato to the town of Kuala, the town of the border will drop to 2800 meters, while the average altitude of Kathmandu is only 1400 meters. "From the Himalayan Mountains to Gulfu's canyon, challenge the project is quite huge." Cui Peng said.

Another reality that cannot be ignored is that the Sino -Nine Railway will inevitably cross the Himalayan earthquake zone.

The Qinghai -Tibet Plateau is the strongest area of ​​my country's modern structural activities and earthquake activities. The southern edge of the Himalayan structure belt is the dive and collision boundary between the Indian sector and the Eurasian sector. It is still in the process of strong pushing.

Li Haibing, director of the key laboratory of the Ministry of Natural Resources, has participated in the construction of the Sichuan -Tibet Railway. In recent years, he has done a series of geological disaster prevention and disaster prevention and mitigation scientific research on the Sino -Nine Railway.

He told China News Weekly that the Zhongni Railway will cross the Yarlung Tibetan Bujiang Belt, the Tyz Himalaya Belt, and the Gaoci Himalaya, and cross the north and south. These structure bands will bring a series of challenges to the construction of the Zhongni Railway.

It is reported that since the Himalayan region, since its own earthquake records, there have been 9 large earthquakes above 7.5 or more, a large earthquake above 8 or more, and a large earthquake in Nepal in 2015 reached 8.1.

According to Li Haibing, although these large earthquake areas are mainly distributed in the south of the Sino -Nine Railway, it is not far away. If there is another earthquake, it may cause the collapse, cracking, and damage of related facilities. , Mountain floods, ice lakes and other issues.

"There are no big problems in technology"

However, Li Haibing also admits that several cracking belts along the line may have a large earthquake except the Shenza-Dingjie Rift Valley Belt. Small, the risk of large earthquakes in the future is relatively lower than that of the eastern Rift Valley, and there is no need to worry too much.

Therefore, experts from the Institute of Geology of the Chinese Academy of Sciences and experts from Lanzhou University have suggested that the Sino -Nine Railway Engineering Plan should choose a position with weak activity and cross the north -south and east -west fault bands as much as possible to avoid close from the break from the break. parallel. In addition to the earthquake disaster, Li Haibing reminded that due to the complex and active internal and external geological effects of the region, it is necessary to pay attention to problems such as high ground fever, soft rock deformation, and hard rock explosion brought by it.

It is precisely because of the complexity of the Geological conditions of the Zhongni Railway that the railway engineer of the Nepalese railway department has said: "From a technical perspective, this may be the most difficult railway project in the world."

Cui Peng believes that the next step of the proposed Zhongni Railway needs to strengthen the research on disaster on the railway, further analyzes the causes of disaster, distribution laws, activity characteristics, and future development trends, and cooperate with related design and construction departments in cooperation , Together, do a good job of disaster avoidance.

"For example, there are irreversible disasters through the area, we can do refined research and analysis of the disaster, determine the specific parameters and degree of harm of the disaster, and do local protective treatment with relevant units, perceive in advance, early warning in advance, cope with early response , Reduce the impact of the disaster to the minimum, "he said.

Cui Peng said that early prevention of disasters is always better than emergency response after disaster.

Although the construction of the Zhongni Railway is difficult, Cui Peng mentioned that my country has the experience of building the Qinghai -Tibet Railway and the Sichuan -Tibet Railway under construction. With the safe operation in the later period, "there are almost no major problems in technology."

He said, "When building the Qinghai -Tibet Railway, we overcome the problems of hypoxia, ecological protection and frozen soil protection of the plateau. On the Sichuan -Tibet Railway, we faced disasters such as rock explosion, mudslides, landslides, ice lakes, and floods. The Nigerian Railway brings together all the challenges of the two parties. If the Qinghai -Tibet Railway is a step and the Sichuan -Tibet Railway is another step, then the Zhongni Railway will be built and will bring my country's railway construction to a new height. "

Author: Chen Shulian ([email protected])

Zhao Yue ([email protected])

Edit: Sun Xiaobo

Operation editor: Xiao Ran

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