India and Japan have signed an MoU on cooperation and assistance in the Mumbai – Ahmedabad High Speed Rail Project (referred by many as Bullet Train project). The two countries have also entered into two comprehensive technological cooperation agreements for modernization and upgradation of Indian Railways.
1) MoU between India and Japan on cooperation and assistance in the Mumbai – Ahmedabad HSR Project
- India and Japan have signed an MoU on cooperation and assistance in the Mumbai – Ahmedabad High Speed Rail Project (referred by many as Bullet Train project).
- Japan has offered an assistance of over Rs.79,000 crore 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 per cent.
- The project is a 508 Kilometer railway line costing a total of Rs. 97,636 crore, to be implemented in a period of seven years.
- It has been agreed that 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.
2) Memorandum of Cooperation (MoC) between Ministry of Railways and MLIT, Japan on technological cooperation
Areas of cooperation
- 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.
3) MoU on technological cooperation between RDSO and Railway Technical Research Institute Japan
The main directions of cooperation between the Parties shall 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; and
- Any other area jointly agreed upon by the Parties
Specific projects under the above cooperation areas and modalities of cooperation will be jointly discussed and decided by the parties.
