High Speed rail project

India’s High-speed Rail Project to be key agenda in Indo-China Strategic Economic Dialogue

The working group on infrastructure will focus on collaboration in strengthening the existing tracks in India to increase speed of trains

Beijing: India and China will hold the third round of their Strategic Economic Dialogue (SED) here this week aimed at raising the speed of Indian trains and improving heavy haul operations and rail stock.

Deputy Chairman of the Planning Commission Montek Singh Ahluwalia will arrive on Monday for the strategic economic dialogue to be held on 18 March.

Five working groups covering various areas are finalizing the details for the high-level economic and trade dialogue between the two countries. Besides attending SED, Ahluwalia would call on Chinese Premier Li Keqiang on 19 March.

The Chinese delegation will be headed by chairman of the National Reforms Development Commission (NDRC) Xu Shaoshi.

The working groups covered areas such as infrastructure, mainly the railways, and operationalizing agreement for service centres to be set up in India for Chinese power equipment, environment and resources protection, water management and policy coordination, collaboration on planning and urbanization, and cooperation in high technology, including the IT sector.

Officials said the working group on infrastructure will focus on collaboration in strengthening the existing tracks in India to increase speed of the trains.

They said talks will be centred around high-speed tracks, not high-speed trains in which China has developed expertise in recent years.

The two sides will also discuss collaboration in heavy haul of rail stock and re-development of railway stations. The present global economic situation, cooperation in international monetary and financial systems, global commodity markets, sustainable development and climate change will also figure in the talks, officials said.