India and Japan inked three agreements for cooperation in Railway Sector

India and Japan on 12 December 2015 signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) on cooperation and assistance in the Mumbai – Ahmedabad High Speed Rail Project (Bullet Train project).

Both the countries on 11 December 2015 also entered into two comprehensive technological cooperation agreements for modernization and upgradation of Indian Railways.

MoU on cooperation and assistance in the Mumbai – Ahmedabad HSR Project

• Japan offered an assistance of over 79000 crore rupees for the project.
• The loan is for a period of 50 years with a moratorium of 15 years, at an interest rate of 0.1 percent.
• The project is a 508 Kilometer railway line costing a total of 97636 crore rupees.
• The project will be implemented in a period of seven years.
• Shinkansen Technology will be adopted for the project.  
• The cooperation of Japan will be fixed on transfer of technology and Make in India.
• Japan will assist India in training of personnel for HSR.

Memorandum of Cooperation (MoC) between Ministry of Railways and MLIT, Japan on technological cooperation

Areas of cooperation include:

• Railway Safety
• Rolling stock including train sets/EMUs
• Information sharing for station development and land value capture
• Information sharing for environment friendly sanitation technology in trains
• Signalling and telecommunication
• Railway Electrification
• Civil structure and railway track system
• Train control system
• Mitigation of natural disasters
• Any other areas jointly determined by both Sides within the scope of this MoC

MoU on technological cooperation between RDSO and Railway Technical Research Institute Japan

•The main directions of cooperation between the parties will be the development of rail-related technical cooperation in which the parties may have mutual interest, performance of consultation and other services.

The broad areas of technical cooperation may include:

• Safety in train operation
• Advanced techniques of maintenance
• Use of environment friendly technologies
• Throughput enhancement measures
• Any other area jointly agreed upon by the Parties

Now get latest Current Affairs on mobile, Download # 1  Current Affairs App