The state-owned firm will be responsible for the construction and operation of the Qinghai-Tibet railway, the first rail route linking southwest China's Tibet Autonomous Region with the rest of the country.

The Qinghai-Tibet Railway Company (QTRC) will be administered directly by the Ministry of Railways and will be held responsible for its own profits and losses, an example of the government's new policy of administering public-funded railways.

According to QTRC General Manager Lu Chunfang, the newly-founded company will be responsible for building the segment extending from the city of Lhasa in Tibet to Gormo in Qinghai as well as for the management of railway transportation, construction design and for overseeing the process of engineering tenders, both before and after the road is operational.

More than 960 kilometers, or over four-fifths of the 1,142-km railway, will be built at an altitude of more than 4,000 meters, and one section measuring 550 km in length will be laid on frozen earth area.

Upon its completion, scheduled for 2007, the railway will be the longest and highest railroad in the world.

(Xinhua News Agency September 4, 2002)