Recently, the "Announcement of Winning Candidates for the Lop Nur to Ruoqiang Railway Construction Total Price Contract" was publicly released. The project construction unit has been determined and construction will officially start in early 2024, with a planned construction period of 3 years.On June 16, 2022, the Hotan-Ruoqiang Railway (Heruo Railway) was opened for operation. This is the first railway in the "life restricted area" Lop Nur., with a total length of 825 kilometers and a design speed of 120 kilometers per hour, it can be reached from Hotan to Ruoqiang in 11 hours and 26 minutes.
The world's first desert railway loop was also formed. The 2,712-kilometer-long Taklamakan Desert Railway loop connects Ruoqiang, Hotan, Kashgar, Aksu, and Korla. It is also the southern Xinjiang loop planned by Xinjiang.
Among them, 534 kilometers of the Heruo Railway are distributed in windy and sandy areas, accounting for 65% of the total line length. It is a typical desert railway.
The total length of the newly built Luoruo Railway is about 300 kilometersAmong them, the new line from Luozhong Station to Milan Station is 239.117 kilometers long, and the second line from Milan Station to Ruoqiang Station using the existing Geku Railway is 60.741 kilometers long.
Total investment estimate is 8.235 billion yuan, of which 59% is the investment capital within the central budget, 25% is the capital of the China Railway Group, and 16% is the capital of the Xinjiang Autonomous Region Group.
After the project is completed,Xinjiang’s Eastern Xinjiang Loop will be completed and an intra-Xinjiang loop railway from Urumqi-Hami-Ruoqiang-Hotian-Kashgar-Urumqi will be constructed., and connects with the Lanzhou-Xinjiang Railway and the Geku Railway to form a multi-path passage in and out of Xinjiang.
The Luo-Ruo Railway will connect the existing Hotan-Ruoqiang and Hami-Lop Nur railways and open up dead ends, which will help promote the development of mineral resources such as potassium salt and "road-to-rail" transportation along the line, increase the passenger and freight volume of the Heruo and Haruo railways, improve the operating conditions of existing lines, and is of great significance for improving the reliability and flexibility of transportation in and out of Xinjiang, and optimizing and improving the layout of the regional road network.