With 12.9 billion yuan in investment, construction on the Golmud-Dunhuang line was kicked off last October and is expected to be completed in five years, company spokesperson Wang Tao told Xinhua.
This extension will join existing railways that link Xinjiang with Qinghai and Gansu provinces, forming a circular railway network upon completion.
The proposal for the Golmud-Korla line passed a feasibility test in June. With a length of 1,222.9 km and an investment of 33.5 billion yuan, this extension will, for the first time, provide direct rail transportation between Tibet and Xinjiang, reducing the trip between Lhasa and Urumqi by more than 1,000 km.
In a bid to make the plateau more accessible to southwest China, authorities in Qinghai have also proposed adding two more lines linking economic powerhouse Chengdu, Sichuan Province, to Golmud and Xining.
However, building and operating railways on the world's highest plateau are no easy feats. The Qinghai-Tibet Railway was designed and built with ecological considerations in mind. More than 1.5 billion yuan was spent on environmental conservation along its route, accounting for 5 percent of the project's total spending.
The railway has 33 special passageways for rare animals, including the critically-endangered Tibetan antelope. It also bypassed celestial burial grounds and lamaseries to show respect to local custom and protect religious sites.
Wang Jinchang, a section manager with the engineering affairs department of the Qinghai-Tibet Railway Company, said an additional 195 million yuan has been invested over the past seven years to improve local ecology and protect wildlife.
"The Qinghai-Tibet Railway has provided a lot of experience for us to draw on for the construction and operation of future railway projects," Zhu said.
"The plateau railway network will be energy-efficient, environmentally-friendly and have minimal ecological impact," he added.
People enjoy time at old teahouse in Kashgar, NW China's Xinjiang
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