Cabinet apprised of India-Russia MoU and MoC in railways

The Union Cabinet, chaired by Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Thursday, was informed about two memoranda signed with Russia last month.

The two countries signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) and a Memorandum of Cooperation (MoC) respectively.

While the MoU was signed with the Russian transportation ministry for the development of cooperation in transport education, the MoC between the two counties was reached with the Joint Stock Company "Russian Railways" (RZD) for technical cooperation.

The India-Russia instruments are aimed at providing a platform for Indian Railways to interact and share the latest developments and knowledge in the railway sector.

They are also expected to facilitate the exchange of technical experts, reports and technical documents, training and seminars. Workshops focusing on specific technology areas and other interactions for knowledge sharing also form a part of the memoranda.

Indian Railway Ministry has signed such documents with various counties. The identified areas of cooperation include high-speed rail, speed raising of existing routes, development of world-class stations, heavy haul operations and modernization of rail infrastructure etc.

The cooperation is achieved through an exchange of information on developments in areas of railway technology and operations, knowledge sharing, technical visits, training, seminars and workshops in areas of mutual interest.

The MoU will envisage cooperation in the priority areas for the development of transport education. This would enable the preparation of specific proposals in this area including their implementation within the framework of the Intergovernmental Russian-Indian Commission on Trade-Economic, Scientific-Technical and Cultural Cooperation.

The MoC will enable technical cooperation in various fields, including the upgradation of the Nagpur- Secunderabad section; implementation of a Single Traffic Control Center to manage mixed traffic at the regional level.