The Chinese government will spend 13 million yuan (US$1.61
million) on an earthquake warning system along the southern section
of the Qinghai-Tibet Railway, which began trial operations on
Saturday.
Two comprehensive seismic monitoring stations and a global
positioning system observation center are to be constructed along
the Golmud-Lhasa section to form a seismic alarm network with the
existing monitoring station at Nagqu Township, said Peng Fengshan,
head of the Tibet Autonomous Region Seismological Bureau.
Earthquake monitoring on the plateau railway is crucial because
Tibet has entered a seismologically active period that would last
until about 2014, Peng said.
"The Golmud-Lhasa section of the Qinghai-Tibet Railway passes
through a region where moderate quakes measuring up to six on the
Richter scale occur annually," Peng added.
However, he played down concerns by saying previous quakes were
barely noticeable because the epicenters were far from the rail
route.
Peng said construction would be finished before the end of the
11th Five-year Plan period (2006 to 2010), and
with the system in place, any damage would be minimal.
The 1,956-kilometer Qinghai-Tibet Railway runs across the frozen
tundra of the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau from Lhasa to Xining, capital
of Qinghai Province. The section between Golmud and Lhasa extends
1,142 kilometers.
The railway, completed last October, is the highest and longest
highland railroad in the world and the first to connect Tibet with
other parts of China.
(Xinhua News Agency June 26, 2006)