Nath woos Japanese investors into highway projects

Road Transport Minister Kamal Nath today invited Japanese investors to come forward to participate in the $20-billion worth highway projects to be awarded shortly.

Both the countries also agreed to enter into an agreement for bilateral cooperation in the area of road transport and highway infrastructure after Nath met his Japanese counterpart Seiji Maehara in Tokyo, an official statement said here today.

"At the meeting, it was agreed to have an MoU to formalise the cooperation between the two countries in the area of road transport and highways infrastructure. It was also agreed that under the MoU a joint working group would be set up," the statement said.

Nath also called on the Japanese Minister for Economy, Trade and Industry Masayuki Naoshima.

One of the key opportunity areas discussed was the installation of user-friendly electronic toll collection machines and intelligent transport system in the country.

Japanese cooperation was also sought to explore the feasibility of the Mumbai Trans-Harbour Link.

Earlier in the day, Nath told Japanese investors that the highways development programme underway in the country is one the largest such programme in the world in the public-private-partnership mode, under which the government has planned to award 122 projects worth $20 billion for building 11,000 km of roads by June 2010.