Mar. 20 (NBD) -- Chengdu Xinzhu Road & Bridge Machinery Co., Ltd. (Xinzhu Corporation) released a filing Monday night, saying that the company signed a technology licensing agreement concerning maglev transportation system with a subsidiary of German construction company Max Bögl Group last Thursday.  

Max Bögl Group is a leading expert in building German rail infrastructure, an earliest initiator and participant of medium- and low-speed maglev transportation systems across the globe, and also a major technology transfer firm to China.   

Under the agreement, Xinzhu Cooperation will be licensed to use proprietary technologies, patents, intellectual property rights, information, and knowledge related to the German company's maglev transportation system in China, the company's board secretary Zhang Yang said to NBD. The initial license fee is 30 million euros (36.7 million U.S. dollars). The fund will be all from Xinzhou Cooperation itself, not raised from other companies instead.

They will work together to develop new-generation medium- and low-speed maglev transportation systems, including a 120km/h light rail transportation system, a 160km/h intra-city transportation system, and a 200km/h inter-city transportation system. 

The Chengdu-based company hopes that the new systems could be approved by the Germany Federal Rail Authority by the end of 2018. When being introduced in China, the systems will be the first medium- and low- speed maglev transportation systems certified by international organizations.

Through the cooperation, Xinzhu Corporation is able to master the core technologies for building advanced medium- and low-speed maglev transportation systems and to produce system parts independently and locally.

Rising transportation and environmental protection demand pushes more medium and large Chinese cities to adopt rail transportation systems.

Qian Qingquan, a professor of Southwest Jiaotong University and also a academician of the Chinese Academy of Engineering, once said that as China's urbanization speeds up, medium- and low-speed maglev systems will be great options to ease big-city diseases.

Industry insiders explained that such kind of systems features strong climbing capability and small turning radius, resulting in a substantial drop in engineering work and relocation costs.

Sun Zhang, a professor of the Institute of Rail Transit at Tongji University, said demolition and relocation fees usually take up 30 percent of the total cost of a city rail transit construction project. Medium- and low-speed maglev transportation systems can help save more than 50 percent of demolition and relocation fees.

Email: tanyuhan@nbd.com.cn