JICA, Rlys hold second consultative meeting on technical cooperation

The Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA) and the Ministry of Railways, held the second Joint Coordination Committee (JCC) meeting for capacity development on railway safety on Thursday, according to a statement from the agency.

The Technical Cooperation (TC) project that commenced in December 2018, would be implemented during the next one and half years.

This technical cooperation is expected to enhance the capacities of the Indian Railways and the Dedicated Freight Corridor Corporation of India Limited (DFCCIL) with regard to safety of the railways network, especially in the fields of rails welding, track maintenance, rolling stock maintenance, accident investigation and safety management, it said.

"At the JCC meeting, every progress and issues were discussed including the feedback by JICA Experts on railway accident investigation about their field survey and experiences.

"The contents of training program in Japan for accident investigation, scheduled in early July, 2019 were also discussed. The training programs in Japan in all fields mentioned above will be conducted within fiscal year 2019-2020," it said.

The JCC was co-chaired by T P Singh, General Manager, Northern Railway cum Project Director of the TC Project and Yukihiro Koizumi, Deputy Director General, Infrastructure and Peace Building Department of JICA Head Office, along with Dr Makoto Ishida, Chief Advisor of the TC Project and two JICA Expert on Railway Accident Investigation (Japan Transport Safety Board, Government of Japan).

"Indian railway network is one of the largest in the world, therefore appropriate maintenance for safer and reliable operations has got utmost priority. Through this TC Project, JICA experts and the Indian side are jointly working and planning training programs in Japan for sharing Japanese knowledge and experiences in various aspect of railway safety.

"We expect that the training programs in Japan for Accident Investigation, scheduled in early July, would be functionally useful for Indian Railways and DFCCIL to promote safe operations," said Katsuo Matsumoto, Chief Representative, JICA India Office.