Japan signs document with India for fourth tranche of loan for Mumbai-Ahmedabad bullet train

Foreign Secretary, Vijay Mohan Kwatra said, documents for the fourth tranche of loan for India’s bullet train from Mumbai-Ahmedabad were signed during the visit of Japan’s Prime Minister Fumio Kishida to India.

“Fourth tranche of the total of Rs 18,000 crore loan by Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA) for the high speed train was signed. Both the prime ministers assessed the progress of the bullet train which has been progressing well,” Kwatra told reporters in a briefing.

Kishida is on a 2-day visit to India.

The Japanese government financial institution – JICA provides official development assistance loans and technical cooperation to developing countries.

“The high speed train project is also part of the technology cooperation between India and Japan,” he said.

Railway minister Ashwini Vaishnav had earlier said that India is targeting 2026 for the bullet train to start operations. The Ahmedabad-Mumbai high speed train will run at over 350 km per hour over a 508 kilometer route. The heads of the two countries also discussed cooperation in defence manufacturing.

“One of the regions of cooperation between the two countries in defence is likely to be co-innovation and co-design. Investment collaboration was discussed for defence,” Kwatra said.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi has asked the Japanese companies to leverage the manufacturing ecosystem for defence. “It was discussed that defence manufacturing should not be restricted for regional use but also for exports,” the foreign secretary said.

India and Japan also signed documents on renewal of higher level Japanese language learning.