| Construction of
Qinghai-Tibet railway and roads has caused no major environmental problems,
a Chinese official told a meeting in Changsha, capital of central China's
Hunan Province.
Vice-Transportation Minister Hong Shanxiang said environmental protection
measures had been taken in recent construction works ofthe Qinghai-Tibet
railway and roads, successfully preventing environmental damage and erosion.
An inspection team of officials from the Ministry of Railways, the Ministry
of Transportation, the Ministry of Water Resources, the Ministry of Land
and Resources, and State Forestry Administration, and zoologists and botanists
had examined environmental protection works on Qinghai-Tibet roads and
railwaysand issued a report saying the negative effects of construction
onthe environment were minimal, said Hong.
Construction of the Qinghai-Tibet Railway started in June 2001 and a
total of 2 billion yuan (242 million US dollars) will be invested in environmental
protection works such as building routesfor wild animals and conservation
of vegetation.
Hong said similar efforts were made in a project in April 2002 to readjust
the Qinghai-Tibet road, which had been operating since1954 and carried
80 percent of the traffic entering Tibet. | 
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