Recently, the Dali Lijiang Panzhihua Railway (referred to as the Dali Panzhihua Railway) spanning Sichuan and Yunnan provinces has made significant progress. This double track high-speed railway with a designed speed of 250 kilometers per hour has recently released bidding notices for land pre-approval, earthquake safety evaluation, location survey drilling, etc., marking the final stage of project feasibility approval and preliminary design. The Dali Lijiang section is expected to start construction first.

A new 350 kilometer main line will be built along the entire line (325 kilometers in Yunnan and 25 kilometers in Sichuan), connecting the three major hubs of Dali, Lijiang, and Panzhihua. The route passes through the core area of the Hengduan Mountains and requires five crossings of the Jinsha River. It encounters nine types of complex geology, including active fault zones, 8-magnitude earthquake intensity zones, geothermal anomaly zones, and karst development zones. Only the Dali Lijiang section needs to cross 16 active faults. For this purpose, the project adopts the integrated surveying technology of air, space, and earth. During the positioning stage, 162 kilometers of deep hole (≥ 100 meters) and shallow hole drilling will be deployed, and the geological "CT scan" from Erhai Station to Lijiang Station will be completed within 80 days.

As a key prerequisite for preliminary design approval, the seismic safety assessment work has initiated a global bidding process. The project requires the preparation of three zoning reports (Dali Lijiang section in Yunnan, Lijiang provincial boundary section, Sichuan section) and evaluation of 17 key construction sites, of which 16 are in Yunnan section. The report for the Dali Lijiang section is required to enter the site within 5 days and be completed within 30 days after winning the bid, ensuring that the land pre-approval opinion is obtained before September 2025. Previously, the feasibility study (revised draft) of the project had disclosed a total investment of 36.83 billion yuan and a planned total construction period of 5.5 years.

The route design fully integrates the concept of geological adaptability: a tunnel+bridge scheme is adopted in the Jizushan scenic area to reduce surface disturbance, a gas drainage system is installed in the coal bearing strata section, and a closed-loop management of detection grouting verification is implemented in the karst area. The synchronized construction of Lijiang passenger and freight vehicle connection lines, storage yards, and other projects will increase the transportation capacity of the existing Lijiang Station by three times. The project also innovatively introduces a geological survey supervision mechanism, ensuring the safety of the engineering plan through independent third-party evaluation.

This high-speed railway artery, which carries the strategic mission of the Greater Yunnan Western Tourism Circle, will compress the travel time from Dali to Panzhihua from 5 hours to 2 hours after completion, forming a new passage from Sichuan Yunnan West to the land and sea. Editor/Cheng Liting