The Hindu Business Line : India, Germany to form task force on rlys

Indian Railways and German Railways (Deutsche Bahn) have decided to set up a taskforce that would explore and identify the specific areas of co-operation.

“The taskforce would comprise officials from both Indian Railways and Deutsche Bahn,” said Mr V.N. Mathur, Member-Traffic, Indian Railways.

The specific areas of co-operation that were discussed include logistics parks and training, Mr Mathur said, when contacted by Business Line.

This was decided at a meeting held between the Indian Railway Board members, including Mr Mathur and Mr R.K. Rao, Member-Mechanical; and Mr Hartmut Mehdorn, Chairman and CEO, Deutsche Bahn. Mr Mehdorn is a part of the visiting German delegation along with German Chancellor, Ms Angela Merkel.

Earlier MoU

Incidentally, in 2006, Indian Railways and Deutsche Bahn had signed an MoU for enhancing co-operation in railways related technology and developments.

The areas of co-operation cover modernisation and servicing of rolling stock, signalling and telecommunications, maintenance and servicing of rail lines, modernisation of transport operations, technology for increasing speed of rail traffic and undertaking joint research projects.

Deutsche Bahn has expertise in multimodal logistics that it wants to share with Indian Railways.

Tie up with Chinese?

Another international railway organisation with which Indian Railways could explore areas of co-operation is the Chinese Railways with the Railway Minister, Mr Lalu Prasad, slated to visit China. About one year ago, the Indian Railways had sent a proposal to the External Affairs Ministry for entering into an agreement with the Chinese Railways.

Other international railways with which Indian Railways has had tie ups include the French Railways (SNCF), the Russian Railways, the Austrian Railways, the South African Railways (Spoornet) and the Italian Railways, for possible co-operation in different areas.

After entering into broad agreements, officials of the Indian Railways and other foreign railways follow up with joint working groups on the agreement to finalise possible areas of co-operation.