China-Nepal rail tunnel through Himalayas ‘largely a pipe dream’, says engineering boss

A suggested plan to build a rail tunnel through the Himalayas to connect China and Nepal would cost at least 10 billion yuan (HK$12.6 billion) and is unlikely to be built in the coming years, state media reported.

Wang Mengshu, chief engineer with the China Railway Tunnel Group, said that based on past experience with large infrastructure projects in extreme environments such as the high Tibetan plateau, the budget for any tunnel would be 100 million yuan per kilometre and that is probably an underestimate, the state-run news agency Xinhua reported.

“Even at that price most construction companies are unwilling to do it,” he was quoted as saying.

China’s government suggested in 2008 that it might extend the rail link from Qinghai province to Tibet on to neighbouring Nepal, but no formal proposals or route have been drawn up, the report said.

The China Daily quoted Wang earlier this month as saying that the scheme was under consideration and the report was widely picked by overseas media.

Any tunnel through the Himalayas would face huge engineering challenges, Wang told Xinhua.