E-Paper
Himalayan task
By the time you read this, the first Beijing-Lhasa Express which set off from Beijing on Saturday will have reached its destination.
By the time you read this, the first Beijing-Lhasa Express which set off from Beijing on Saturday will have reached its destination. This is not only an engineering wonder or project-management feat, but a political statement as well. China’s leaders have displayed steely resolve and single-mindedness of purpose in pushing this project. It underscores the fact that while Tibet may generate some insecurity in Beijing, the Chinese are quite capable of doing everything they can to do something about it. This is something that India’s political and bureaucratic leadership cannot be accused of. Our trans-Himalayan railway project, the 290-km railway line — linking Jammu, Udhampur, Srinagar and Baramulla — is limping along like so many of other infrastructure projects. There was talk, when it was revived in 2003, that Prime Minister Vajpayee would ride the first train to Srinagar in 2007.
Now, the project has like the BJP-led coalition gone into limbo. So far, only the Jammu to Udhampur section has been completed. Work on the most difficult part, the 11-km long Pir Panjal tunnel has just about begun. The Chenab bridge, to be the highest rail bridge in the world, will only be completed, current estimates suggest, by 2009. The task is no doubt enormous — an inaccessible region with no electricity, water or roads and 783 bridges and 109 km of tunnels to be built. But if China can do it in Tibet, there’s no reason why India can’t in J&K.
The political benefits of the rail link are obvious. The Jammu-Baramulla line will provide a parallel link to the over-burdened Jammu-Kashmir highway, and will also go a long way in bringing the Valley culturally and economically closer to the rest of India. For a while now, security analysts have been noting with alarm as China aggressively constructs top-grade rail and road links in its border areas including in Xinjiang, Yunnan and Tibet. It’s time India woke up to the need to improve transport connectivity to its border areas, for internal, as much as external, reasons.
