The railway project, which was halted for various reasons in the 1970s, was resumed in 2001 and is scheduled to be completed by2007. The railway project costs a total of 36 billion yuan (about 4.34 billion US dollars).

In 2003, 5.6 billion yuan (about 675 million US dollars) is expected to be spent in building the railway and 194 kilometers of rails are to be laid, 83 kilometers more than the length of last year.

A number of technical difficulties have to be resolved in building the power-supply project in Tibet, according to the Tibet Power Construction Corporation.

The Qinghai section of the power-supply project was completed last year.

(Xinhua News Agency April 29, 2003)