India seeks greater participation of Austria in railway modernisation, infrastructure

NEW DELHI: India today sought greater cooperation from Austria for modernisation and capacity augmentation of the rail infrastructure in the country and safety enhancement plans.

"Railway envisages massive capacity augmentation, modernisation and safety enhancement plans in the coming decade and initiatives such as setting up of dedicated freight corridors and increased production and procurement of rolling stock.

"We look forward to the participation of the Austrian side in realising these initiatives," Railways and Road Transport and Highways Minister C P Joshi said.

He said this during an MoU signing agreement between the two countries for strengthening long-term relationship and bilateral cooperation on road infrastructure and road transportation technology.

The MoU was signed between Joshi and visiting Austrian Minister of Transport, Innovation & Technology Doris Burse.

Noting that both the countries had already entered into an agreement in October last year for technology-specific cooperation in railways, he said a joint working group has already met and "we are moving ahead with the cooperation".

Talking to reporters, he said India will also be drawing on Austrain expertise in tunnelling work to expand its road network particularly to remote areas.

He said Austrian companies are already involved in some major projects in India, with one of the Austrian companies bagging a contract from Delhi Metro.