Chinese President Xi Jinping has urged efforts to advance the high-quality construction of the Sichuan-Tibet Railway project. 

Xi, also general secretary of the Communist Party of China Central Committee and chairman of the Central Military Commission, made the instruction ahead of the beginning of the construction of the Sichuan-Tibet Railway's Ya'an-Nyingchi section on Sunday. 

The railway project has great significance to maintaining national unity, promoting ethnic unity, consolidating stability in border areas and promoting economic and social development in western China, especially in Sichuan Province and the Tibet Autonomous Region, Xi said. 

The topographic, geological and climatic conditions along the railway are complex and the ecological environment is fragile, he said, adding that the difficulty of construction is rare in the world.  

Xi said it is necessary to give full play to the advantages of China's socialist system that can concentrate its efforts on major events to complete this glorious and arduous historical task.  

Urging China State Railway Group to shoulder the main responsibility, he said relevant departments and Sichuan and Tibet must strengthen coordination and cooperation.  

Xi stressed the importance of scientific construction, safe construction and green construction, and called on railway constructors to make new contributions to the comprehensive construction of a modern socialist country. 

Chinese Premier Li Keqiang said in an instruction that the construction of the Sichuan-Tibet Railway is a major strategic deployment made by the CPC Central Committee and the State Council based on the overall situation and long-term perspective. 

Stressing that safety comes first, Li called on relevant authorities to increase technical research efforts, arrange construction in a scientific way, strengthen ecological environment protection, and coordinate epidemic prevention and control work with people's livelihood.  

The 1,838-kilometer-long Sichuan-Tibet Railway links Chengdu, capital of southwest China's Sichuan Province and Lhasa, capital of the Tibet Autonomous Region, with a designed speed of around 200 kilometers per hour.  

The Chengdu-Ya'an section of the Sichuan-Tibet Railway started operation in December 2018, and the construction of the Lhasa-Nyingchi section started in June 2015. 

It will be the second railway linking Tibet with other parts of the country, after the Qinghai-Tibet Railway, which started operation in 2006 as the world's highest and longest plateau railway. The Sichuan-Tibet rail line will go through the southeast of the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau, one of the world's most geologically active areas.