Japan aid agency open for funding monorail project

Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA) today said it is open for funding Tamil Nadu Government's monorail project for the city.
JICA Senior Representative Ichiguchi Tomohide told reporters here that if the state government was interested, the agency would consider a proposal to provide assistance.
"It (monorail) is also very important. It is a new mode of transport and Japan has some advantage in that technology," he said.
The Tamil nadu government had proposed a monorail project in 2011 at an estimated Rs 16,000 crore.
JICA is already funding a number of projects in Tamil Nadu including the ongoing Chennai Metro rail work and has contributed around Rs 8,000 crore so far, he said while lauding the progress of the project.

JICA's contribution in state government projects included the sectors of drinking water, forests and energy, he said pointing out at the Rs 3,500 crore assistance to the power transmission project.

It was also in the process of finalising one 'node' (a hub) each in Tamil Nadu, Andhra Pradesh and Karnataka, which are covered under the Chennai-Bangalore Industrial Corridor and each hub would be 100-200 sq km large.
JICA was involved in providing Official Development Assistance (ODA), thus dealing with governments, and its area of operations was divided as loans, grants and technical cooperation, he said.
Since 1958, the agency had committed USD 2.5 trillion to India which was its largest partner. Last fiscal, it had committed around Rs 20,000 crore for the country and looked to provide similar numbers in the coming years also, he said.

To a question, he said more than 1,000 Japanese companies were operating in the country. India could be an export hub for African countries and therefore many Japanese firms were looking forward to invest both in its domestic and export markets, he added.
In many countries, 'world-class' industrial zones were being managed by private companies and such efforts should be done here also to encourage investors, he said.
JICA will hold a two-day national workshop on 'Sustaining Forests and Livelihood through Joint Forest Management' near here on February 17, 2014, he said.