None of the builders of the Qinghai-Tibet railway, the longest and most elevated highland railway in the world, have died of highland diseases since construction of the massive project began more than one year ago, sources with the railway construction headq
uarters said.
The 1,118-km railway, running through areas with an average elevation of 4,500 meters, starts from Golmud in Qinghai Province, northwest China, and terminates at Lhasa, capital of southwest China's Tibet Autonomous Region.
The sources said that the railway project was going on smoothly and track laying has been completed on a 170-km section of the highland railway, the first railway linking Tibet with the rest of China.
More than 30,000 people have worked on the railway, most of them from the hinterland of the country. However, none of them has died of altitude diseases like highland pulmonary edema, coma, heart diseases and abnormal blood pressure.
Wang Yinshan, who is in charge of monitoring the construction of the project, said that all construction units had established medical agencies at the headquarters and construction sites and they contacted local hospitals and military hospitals to immediately treat those who fell ill.
Each construction unit had spent two million to five million yuan on buying electrocardiographs, respirators and other medical instruments.
The Chinese government attached great importance to research on highland diseases over the past several decades, which contributed greatly to the fact that none of the Qinghai-Tibet builders had died of such diseases, said an official surnamed Shen at the railway construction headquarters.
From: xinhua
 |
