Memorandum of Cooperation between Indian Railways and Russian Railways

New Delhi/Urban Transport News: India invited Russian companies to participate in the development of industrial corridors in India, including in areas of road and rail infrastructure, smart cities, construction of wagons and creation of a joint transportation logistics company. A memorandum of cooperation (MoC) was signed between the Ministry of Railways for Indian Railways and joint-stock company Russian Railways on the sidelines of the India-Russia Summit on 5th October 2018 in New Delhi.

Russia offered its expertise in tax collection based on satellite navigation technologies for the realization of joint projects in India including in the framework of above mentioned industrial corridors.

Russia also expressed its interest in participating in the international competitive biddings as and when the Ministry of Railways of India decides to execute the railway speed raising projects.

A Memorandum of Cooperation was signed between the Ministry of Railways of the Republic of India and the Joint Stock Company ‘Russian Railways’ on the sidelines of India-Russia Summit on 5th October, 2018. The MoC intends to carry forward the activities taken up under the Memorandum of Understanding signed between the two countries on 24th December, 2015. The Memorandum of cooperation includes:

• Implementation of speed up gradation project of Nagpur-Secunderabad section ;
• Setting up of single traffic control centre for managing mixed traffic at local level;
• Best practices in freight cargo operation ;
• Development of multi modal terminals ; and
• Exchange of best technologies being practiced by the two countries.
• Training and advanced qualification improvement of Indian railway employees with the involvement of Russian railway-related higher education establishments.

The cooperation agreement was signed by Chairman, Railway Board, Shri Ashwani Lohani from Indian side and Mr. Oleg Belozerov, CEO & Chairman of Russian Railways.

A Memorandum of Understanding was signed between Ministry of Railways and Ministry of Transport of Russian Federation for development of cooperation in transport education. The MoU aims at providing organizational and methodological support to higher educational institutions implementing joint projects in the field of transport education of both countries. It also envisages cooperation between Russian University of Transport and the National Rail Transportation Institute, Vadodara to jointly organize educational transport seminars, including participation in shaping their themes, facilitating the search for partners, organizing mutual visits and preparation of methodical and regulatory documents.

The cooperation agreement was signed by Chairman, Railway Board, Shri Ashwani Lohani from Indian side and H.E. Mr. Nikolay Rishatovich Kudashev, Russian Ambassador to India from Russian side.

The President of India, Ram Nath Kovind said that India is keen to enhance its economic ties with Russia. Bilateral trade now stands at US $ 10 billion. “We need to further improve upon it to reach the target of US $ 30 billion by 2025,” he said in a statement released by the Rashtrapati Bhavan.