Chinese President Xi Jinping gave orders to his officials to speed up the construction of the new $47.8 billion railway project connecting the country’s southwest Sichuan province to Linzhi also known as Nyingchi, in Tibet which is located near Arunachal Pradesh along the Indo-China border. 

Jinping said that the major reason behind the construction of the Sichuan-Tibet Railway is safeguarding border stability. It will also help to boost the overall economic development of the Tibet region. He further emphasized the fact that the construction should be carried out in a scientific, safe, and eco-friendly way.

The Sichuan-Tibet Railway will go through the southeast of the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau, one of the world’s most geologically active areas, according to the Chinese official media. It will travel through Ya’an and enters Tibet via Qamdo, and therefore shorten the travel time from Chengdu to Lhasa from 48 hours to 13 hours.