China offers to build light rail transit in Islamabad

Chinese company NORINCO International has offered its services to the Capital Development Authority (CDA) to build a state of the art mass transit system in Islamabad alongwith recommending a modern 'Light Rail Transit' (Tram) project for the city.

The company is already engaged in the construction of 'Orange Line Metro Train project' in Lahore, reports the Daily Times.

NORINCO International is a public listed company subordinate to China North Industries Corporation and its business scope covers projects in sectors of railway and urban rail transit systems besides several other domains such as highways and expressways.

A group of representatives from this company visited the head office of the civic body on Friday and delivered a presentation.

A brief comparison among Metro Train, Light Rail Transit (Tram) and Traditional Light Rail Transit was presented before the city managers.

The company representatives highlighted different merits and demerits of aforementioned three kinds of transport systems, but recommended the Light Rail Transit for Islamabad.

The proposed LRT for Islamabad will have the capacity to cater to around 8,000 to 20,000 passengers per hour while its each unit will have the capacity to occupy 350-700 passengers at a time.

The maximum speed of the proposed LRT is 80 kilometres per hour, but it operates on the speed of 20-35 kilometres per hour while the project can be implementable on both dedicated or partially dedicated right of the way.

"The tentative cost of this project would be around one billion rupees per kilometre, which is not so much expensive", an insider of the meeting commented on the condition of anonymity.