KARACHI, Aug 26: The city government has signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) with a Swiss-German firm — Inter Glob — for an electromagnetic levitation train in Karachi.

The 1.2-billion-dollar project will be financed by an international consortium and will be pursued on a build, operate and transfer (BOT) basis.

This was stated by City Nazim Naimatullah Khan at a press conference at the Governor’s House on Monday.

Sindh Governor Mohammedmian Soomro and Prof Ing Wagner of the Inter Glob were also present.

Mr Soomro, welcoming the project, assured the parties his government’s every possible assistance, adding that we would work in a close coordination.

Naimatullah Khan said the draft agreement, which had been received from the Swiss-German firm, would be forwarded to the provincial government for obtaining a no-objection certificate (NOC).

He stated that there would be no monetary investment by the city government in the project which would participate in terms of allocating land and infrastructure.

Dr Wagner said the system of electromagnetic train had been developed in Germany about five decades ago. Such a system is in vogue in Shanghai, while Karachi will be the third place having such a facility.

He said after finalization the project could be executed in about two years as a lot of studies had already been carried out during the last ten years.

Dr Wagner pointed out that the system of electromagnetic train in Karachi would spread over 97 kilometres with six corridors.

He was of the view that the system could also be extended up to Islamabad and with a speed of up to 600 kilometres per hour the train could reach the federal capital from Karachi in about two-and-a-half hours.

In such a case it will have the capacity to ferry cars as well as trucks, he added.

Dr Wagner said the system could be extended to Afghanistan and the Central Asian states from where oil and gas could be exported to South East Asia, China and Japan via Karachi for which the city government would have to build storage facilities.—APP