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Beijing (AFP) May 10, 2008 China plans to build a power transmission line from northwestern Qinghai province to the troubled province of Tibet in a bid to boost the region's economy, state media said Saturday. The 1,100-kilometre (680-mile) line would take electricity from Golmud in Qinghai to Lhasa, the capital of Tibet, on the same route as the recently-opened railway, officials told the Xinhua news agency. The power line has a first-stage target of transmitting 6.5 billion kilowatt-hours annually, and is expected to be in operation by 2010, said officials at the National Development and Reform Commission. Xue Gengxin, vice president of the Xibei Electric Power Design Institute, said that the electricity line would be the world's first above 5,000 metres in altitude, and that special permafrost research was being carried out. Beijing recently held informal talks with exiled Tibetan envoys, a move seen as a political response to global protests over China's crackdown on unrest in the province that angered Beijing leaders ahead of the Olympics in August. The Tibetan government-in-exile says 203 Tibetans have been killed and about 1,000 injured in the Chinese crackdown. China denies this, saying Tibetan "rioters" and "insurgents" killed 21 people. Beijing authorities often stress the economic advantages of the Qinghai-Tibet trainline -- the highest in the world -- for Tibet province, which has recently received massive Chinese investment. Community Email This Article Comment On This Article Share This Article With Planet Earth
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