Least populated township connected to grid

LHASA — A sparsely populated township in Tibet autonomous region has been connected to the state electricity grid, ending life without electricity for its 32 residents, local authorities said Tuesday.

The 15-km-long 10-kilovolt power line, which took five months to complete, is connected to remote Yulmed township in Luntse county, Shannan city, via 108 electric poles over a 5,000-meter-high mountain, according to the contractor, a Xining-based electric power company in neighboring Qinghai province.

Yulmed has an average elevation of 3,650 meters and its population was once reduced to one three-member household. Now it has nine households.

In 2008, the local government built a small hydropower station, but it failed to meet increasing power demands, due to improved living standards of the residents, and power outages were frequent.