Tibet-Nepal rail through Everest tunnel planned

BEIJING: China plans to build a 540-km 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.
“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 Friday.
The rail line is expected to be completed by 2020. However, there is no word on the cost of the project.
The 1,956-km long Qinghai-Tibet railway already links the rest of China with the Tibetan capital Lhasa and beyond.
Wang Mengshu, a rail expert at the Chinese Academy of Engineering, said that engineers would face a number of difficulties once the project begins.
Such a plan could see a tunnel being built under Mount Everest, the China Daily said.
Besides Nepal, China had earlier announced plans to extend its Tibetan rail network to Bhutan and India.
During his recent visit to Nepal, Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi had asked the officials to conduct a feasibility study to extend the rail network to Kathmandu and beyond, the report said.