China is set to build the most ambitious rail link connecting Xinjiang province with Tibet, part of which will “run near" the Line of Actual Control (LAC) with India. This is not the only mega construction in the region. Just last month, China started construction of the world’s biggest dam over the Brahmaputra River in ecologically fragile Tibet, close to Arunachal Pradesh. These developments mark a significant escalation in China’s infrastructure expansion in the Himalayan region.

The Xinjiang-Tibet Railway Company (XTRC), registered with an initial capital of 95 billion yuan and wholly owned by the China State Railway Group, has been tasked with constructing this strategic line. According to media reports, the project is part of a broader plan to create a 5,000-kilometre plateau rail framework anchored on Lhasa by 2035.

While the registered capital represents only a small initial investment, the overall costs are expected to be far higher, comparable to the 320 billion yuan spent on the 1,800-kilometre Sichuan-Tibet Railway. The route, averaging over 4,500 metres in elevation, will traverse key Himalayan regions such as the Kunlun, Karakoram, Kailash and other mountain ranges.

Certain sections of this railway line will allegedly run very close to the LAC. There is, thus, clear defensive and strategic value in this project for India. Furthermore, this mirrors China’s earlier construction of the Xinjiang-Tibet Highway through Aksai Chin, which was a key trigger of the 1962 Sino-Indian conflict. Thus, the construction of the Xinjiang-Tibet Railway link reinforces the strategic stakes for India, given its historical and cultural ties with the region and claims over the territory.

Expanding on the proposed railway link, it is one of four planned rail lines linking Tibet to the rest of China. The new line will come up alongside the already operational Qinghai-Tibet route and two others under construction from Sichuan and Yunnan. Furthermore, these projects are coming at an extremely delicate moment for India-China relations, as Beijing and New Delhi have........

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