Tibet saves $173m of transportation costs in railway
Sunday, 1 July 2007
LHASA, June 30 (Xinhua): Tibet has saved 173 million yuan (22.8 million U.S. dollars) of transportation costs in the 11 months since the operation of Qinghai-Tibet Railway, the first to link Tibet with the rest of China.
The 1,956-km-long railway, running from Xining, capital of northwestern Qinghai Province, and Lhasa, capital of southwestern Tibet Autonomous Region, transported 591,000 tons of cargo between July 1 last year and May 30 this year, Qiangba Puncog, chairman of the regional government, has said.
Most of the cargo, or 94.4 per cent, was carried into Tibet, he told a meeting of celebration Friday marking the anniversary of the opening of the railway.
He said that the charge rate of freight transport by railway is 0.12 yuan per ton km, much less than that by highway, or 0.27 yuan, and he reckoned that 293.4 yuan can be saved for a ton of cargo from Xining to Lhasa.
The 1,956-km-long railway, running from Xining, capital of northwestern Qinghai Province, and Lhasa, capital of southwestern Tibet Autonomous Region, transported 591,000 tons of cargo between July 1 last year and May 30 this year, Qiangba Puncog, chairman of the regional government, has said.
Most of the cargo, or 94.4 per cent, was carried into Tibet, he told a meeting of celebration Friday marking the anniversary of the opening of the railway.
He said that the charge rate of freight transport by railway is 0.12 yuan per ton km, much less than that by highway, or 0.27 yuan, and he reckoned that 293.4 yuan can be saved for a ton of cargo from Xining to Lhasa.