Ahmedabad, 29 May 2013

Update: Gujarat part of Joint statement of Prime Minister of India and Japan

Mumbai-Ahmedabad bullet train project is one of the major agendas of discussion between India and Japan during Prime Minister Manmohan Singh’s ongoing Japan visit. Gujarat may expect some breakthrough on this during the visit.

Prime Minister Dr. Manmohan Singh kicked off his Japan tour with an address at the luncheon hosted by Nippon Keidanren in Tokyo yesterday, and Ahmedabad-Mumbai bullet train project was mentioned in his speech.

In his speech Dr. Manmohan Singh said, “I understand that Japan has also offered financial and technical support for a Detailed Project Report for the Mumbai-Ahmedabad High Speed Railway route. This is an ambitious project and we will need to take a holistic view, based on our infrastructure needs, commercial viability, overall national priorities and the availability of financial resources. We are willing for Japan and India to co-finance a joint feasibility study on this.”

According to a report published in Tokyo based Nikkei newspaper, India is seen set to use Japanese bullet train technology for a high-speed connection between Mumbai and Ahmedabad.

Prime Minister Shinzo Abe and Manmohan Singh will issue a joint statement at a summit later in the day giving details on a feasibility study for the railway, a newspaper said.

Abe is to offer a sweetener in the form of 101.7 billion yen ($1.0 billion) in yen-based loans to India, the newspaper said, as Tokyo fights off competition from nations such as France, which has the TGV high-speed rail network.

Japan under Abe is embarking on a renewed drive to sell roads, rail and power stations to emerging nations, including India, in a bid to offset lassitude in the domestic economy that has left it treading water.

Earlier this month Abe pledged he would travel the world on behalf of Japan Inc and said he wanted to treble sales of Japan’s well-respected infrastructure projects to 30 trillion yen a year.

The Mumbai-Ahmedabad rail line would stretch 500 kilometers (312 miles) at a cost of up to one trillion yen, the newspaper said, adding the two governments plan to finish technological reviews and costings by March 2014.

Abe was also expected to offer around 17.7 billion yen to India to build a conference hall and other facilities at the Indian Institute of Technology in Hyderabad, along with around 13 billion yen for the Tamil Nadu state government, the Nikkei said.

The pledges will come on top of a March offer of a 71 billion yen loan towards the construction of an underground rail network in Mumbai.

Japanese media have said the two sides will agree on drafting a master plan for new infrastructure in southern India, which could see Japanese know-how used to build a power grid, roads, railways and ports around Bangalore and Chennai.