China has opened a 40.4km highway between Xigaze airport and Xigaze city centre in Tibet to public, linking the Chinese national highway to the Nepal border, Chinese media reported.

Experts believe the development will enable China to forge a route into South Asia in both economic and defence terms, the Global Times reported.

The short road section, opened on Friday, will shorten the journey from an hour to 30 minutes between the dual-use civil and military airport and Xigaze (also called Shigatse), the second largest city of Tibet.

The road runs parallel with the Xigaze-Lhasa railway line linking the 5,476 kilometre G318 highway from Shanghai to Zhangmu on the Nepal border.

“It can link with the future cross-border Sino-Nepali railway,” the Global Times quoted Zhao Gancheng, director of the Centre for Asia-Pacific Studies at the Shanghai Institute for International Studies, as saying.

“The Sino-Nepali railway, which passes through the Chinese border town of Zhangmu and connects with routes in Nepal, will be the first railway by which China enters South Asia.”

The Sino-Nepali railway was part of a deal struck by Nepal Deputy Prime Minister Krishna Bahadur Mahara when he visited China in early September.

“The railway includes two lines: one connecting three of Nepal’s most important cities and two crossing the border between China and Nepal,” the Global Times quoted a report by the People’s Daily.