The second meeting of high level Joint Committee on Mumbai-Ahmedabad high speed rail project in Tokyo, Japan. The Indian delegation which is visiting Japan for this is being led by Dr. Arvind Panagariya, Vice Chairman, NITI, Aayog. Other members include – Shri A.K. Mital, Chairman/Railway Board, Shri Shaktikanta Das/Secretary, Department of Economic Affairs, Shri Jaishankar/Foreign Secretary and Shri Ramesh Abhishek, Secretary/Department of Industry Policy and Promotion. The Japanese side will be led by Mr. Hiroto Izumi/Special Adviser to the Hon’ble Prime Minister of Japan. Other Members from Japanese side will include senior officials from Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MOFA), Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry (METI), Ministry of Land, Infrastructure, Transport & Tourism (MLIT), Government of Japan and senior officials from Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA).
During the meeting, the Joint Committee will finalize the schedule of project, terms related to the appointment of General Consultant and procurement conditions. Since the loan negotiation and finalization of loan agreement will take some time, Government of India to achieve timely implementation of project have requested for a proper schedule of project implementation and had also requested for appointment of General Consultant before the finalization of loan agreement. The appointment of General Consultant will enable start of preparatory activities like designing and preparation of tender documents.
Since Make in India and Transfer of Technology are key components of the project implementation, an industry interaction between Indian and Japanese companies will be held on 17th May, 2016. The event will be participated by almost 100 Japanese companies and 21 Indian companies. The industry interaction will enable Indian companies to explore business opportunities in participation with Japanese companies. Some of the Indian companies include : BHEL, BEML, IRCON, Reliance Metro, Tata Infrastructure, JBM, Patil Infrastructure, IL&FS, Hindustan Construction Company, Texmaco Rail among others.