Railways to build a station in Arunachal Pradesh near the India-China border, says Defence Minister Manohar Parrikar

PANAJI: Indian Railways will soon set up a station in Arunachal Pradesh near the India-China border, Defence Minister Manohar Parrikar said on Saturday.

"A draft of the MoU (Memorandum of Understanding) is ready and will be signed soon," Parrikar said, adding he has spoken in detail about the project to Railway Minister Suresh Prabhu.

The defence minister said that the "gravity" of the border issue between China and India has come down as far as Arunachal Pradesh is concerned.

Parrikar said instances of transgression by China into the Indian territory have reduced in the last one year owing to confidence building measures between the two sides. "The border dispute with China is not new. It has been existing right from the time of India's Independence. It is an imaginary line and there are some issues which are related to perception," Parrikar said ahead of PM Modi's scheduled visit to China next month.

"..In last few years we have taken certain steps. We have built confidence and the dispute has frozen. Compared to last year, this year the (instances of) transgression is less," he said.

"Their army walks into the territory which we consider as ours. But these confusion areas have reduced, the number is also less during last one year," he said.

Responding to a question whether Modi would take up the border dispute issue during his visit, Parrikar said, "I think when he (Modi) goes there, he can sort out some issues."

China had sent alarm bells ringing a few weeks back with its plans to build a 540-kilometre 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 today.

The rail line was expected to be completed by 2020. However, there was 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 will face a number of difficulties once the project begins.

"If the proposal becomes reality, bilateral trade, especially in agricultural products, will get a strong boost, along with tourism and people-to-people exchanges," he said.

Such a plan could see a tunnel being built under Mount Everest, the China Daily said.

"The changes in the elevation along the line are remarkable. The line is probably have to go through Qomolangma so that worker may have to dig some very long tunnels," Wang said. Qomolangma Mountain is the Tibetan name for Mt Everest.

Restrained by rugged Himalayan mountains with its "remarkable" changes in elevation, trains on the line would probably have a maximum speed of 120 kmph.

Wang said that the project is being undertaken at Nepal's request and that China has begun preparatory work.

Losang Jamcan, Chairman of the Tibet Autonomous Region, told Nepalese President Ram Baran Yadav during his visit to Tibet's provincial capital Lhasa last month that China plans to extend the Tibet railway to Kermug, the Chinese town nearest to Nepal border where a border trade port has been built.

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.

Hu Shisheng, Director of the China Institute of Contemporary International Relations, told official media earlier that the aim of the rail line is to simply improve the local economies and people's livelihoods.