By IANS
New Delhi : India and France will sign a new memorandum of understanding to cooperate in the railway sector during French President Nicolas Sarkozy’s two-day official visit to the country.
“The union cabinet presided over by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh gave its approval for signing a fresh memorandum of understanding (MoU) between ministry of railways, government of India and SNCF, French National Railways,” Union Information and Broadcasting Minister Priyaranjan Dasmunsi said Thursday soon after a cabinet meeting.
“The MoU will help promote cooperation in the rail sector between French National Railways and Indian Railways. It will be valid for three years,” he said.
“The cooperation between the two railways will involve increasing line capacity, safety, maintenance and upgrading of tracks and structures, signalling, telecommunications, power supply, electric or diesel traction stock, information technology training, high-speed rail projects and regional and urban development,” a railways ministry official said.
The official also said that both the countries had signed a memorandum for cooperation in this field in 2004. The agreement was for three years and was renewed for another year in January 2007.
“Now, with the French President coming to India, we thought this would be a good opportunity for signing a fresh MoU on identical lines again for a period of three years,” the official said.
Under the previous agreement, a steering committee was formed comprising three members of Indian railways board and another three of SNCF. The committee was meeting frequently to oversee Indo-French cooperation in the field of Railways, the official said.
This same team has again finalised the areas of cooperation between the two nations. They are expected to sign the MoU on behalf of their countries, the official added.