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Wednesday, August 13, 2025, 20:19 GMT+7

India wants more Japan involvement in rail project

NEW DELHI -- The Indian government is pushing for more involvement by Japan in India's national high-speed railway project, Jiji Press learned Wednesday.

India wants more Japan involvement in rail project- Ảnh 1.

An image of JR East's next-generation E10 Shinkansen train series. Photo: Courtesy of JR East

According to several sources, India expects Japan to submit bids for routes other than the one under construction in western India that is set to utilize the East Asian country's Shinkansen bullet train technology.

With hopes high on the Indian side, arrangements are underway to hold a summit between Japanese Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba and Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi around August 29, when the latter is due to visit Japan.

The Indian government plans to build a high-speed railway network stretching 7,000 kilometers, over double the total length of Japan's Shinkansen network, by 2047, when the South Asian country celebrates the centenary of its independence.

Preliminary surveys have been launched for some routes, including one connecting the nation's capital of New Delhi and Varanasi in northern India.

The envisaged bilateral summit is expected to involve the signing of a "next-generation mobility partnership," a wide-ranging cooperation framework for the western route under construction between Mumbai and Ahmedabad.

Under the partnership, East Japan Railway Co.'s next-generation E10 series of Shinkansen bullet trains will be used for the route, set to be India's first high-speed railway line.

The Indian government aims to partially launch the high-speed rail services in 2027 before introducing the E10 series possibly in the early 2030s, around the same time the series is expected to appear in Japan.

When bilateral negotiations stalled last year, India said that it would not allow Japan to be involved in other high-speed routes. Later, however, it backpedaled on this.

Hoping to win orders for such routes, Japan is considering several proposals, including a hike in the operating speed, sources said.

The idea has been floated for holding a meeting a day after the planned summit, between Modi and Indian trainees taking skill training courses in Japan to become Shinkansen drivers.

Besides railway infrastructure, the Ishiba-Modi summit is expected to deal with expanding personnel exchanges between their countries, boosting cooperation in the semiconductor field and updating the 2008 bilateral joint declaration on security cooperation.

Jiji Press

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