To enhance rail and road infrastructure, India and Germany have agreed to develop projects worth over Rs 1 lakh crore. Germany has also extended it expertise to the Road Ministry’s programme of scrapping of old vehicles.
A German delegation, led by its Transport Minister Alexander Dobrindt, had a detailed meeting with Rail Minister Suresh Prabhu and Road Minister Nitin Gadkari related to various aspects of infrastructure development during the last two days.
Germany is also likely to help Indian Railways in speed raising of existing freight and passenger trains, capacity increase of passenger & goods transport lines, safety, energy efficient rail operations, education & training, high speed rail, standards & norms and station development.
“We have sought Germany’s co-operation in developing our infrastructure, including railway connectivity to our ports, in our planned Rs 1 lakh crore projects to be undertaken by Indian Port Rail Corporation ltd (IPRCl),” Gadkari said. He said both the companies are set for collaboration not only for connecting ports to railways networks but also in areas of waterways and roads.
In the transport sector, discussions were held on cooperation for developing vehicle scrapping capacity in India. India has invited Germany to share environment friendly technology for scrapping of old vehicles and also for processing of the waste thus generated.
Gadkari also conveyed to German Transport Minister that German automobile manufacturers can be called upon to produce cars that can run on flex-fuel for India, like the ones being produced in Canada and USA.
Prabhu has requested the Germans for extending their proposal of high speed (300 kmph +) rail study of Mysore-Bangalore-Chennai Corridor to Vijayawada city of the important State of Andhra Pradesh also.
It was pointed out that High Speed Rail Connectivity through Mysore-Bangalore-Chennai-Vijayawada Corridor will give boost to the regional development and will link the important States of Southern India. Germany has assured to look into this positively and study of which is fully funded by German Government is likely to start from January 2017.
India also emphasised on Station Redevelopment Programme of Indian Railways along with development of Smart Cities in India. A joint working group of Indian Railways and German Railways will also be formed to work on safety in rail operations with a view to help in the
“Zero Accident Mission” of Indian Railways.