Maglev melodrama: Act II
I would like to respond to Mr SA Mansoor of Gulshan, Dhaka, February 18, with regard to the Maglev Monorail project. What should be noted at the outset is that the Shanghai project was much too expensive and that is why the Chinese have decided not to go further at this time. But whereas the costs of the German technology utilised at Shanghai would be around US$65M per mile, I believe that there are much cheaper and newer Maglev technologies now being pursued commercially. One of these is in Japan and another is in the US and their costs are less than US$20M, I am told.
Yes, I agree that a careful feasibility study is required, but let us not write off a technology merely because it is foreign to us. Of course, we need railways in Bangladesh, and why not Maglev if it works, is energy efficient and creates jobs ?
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