A Commemorative Seminar by Indian Parliamentarians

　　On Tuesday, October 27th, the Sasakawa Peace Foundation will organize a lecture to be given by the Indian Parliamentarians on a new possibility of India-Japan relations with a focus on railway infrastructure.

　　Since 2004, the Sasakawa Peace Foundation has been inviting parliament members from India to Japan in an effort to further promote mutual understanding between the two nations. This invitation will mark the 12th year of the program and four members from Rajya Sabha, the India's upper house and Lok Sabha, the lower house, will visit Japan and have dialogues particularly on the theme of railway infrastructure.

　　The Indian railway with a history of over 160 years has stretched over 66,000km in the total length and has become one of the world's leading railway systems. At the same time, the India's railway system faces various challenges such as the severe capacity shortage on the major routes, high accident frequency, obsolete infrastructure, low speed operation, and deterioration in service quality. Transport infrastructure is regarded as a key to the economic growth. The modernization of the railway system is called for in order for the Indian economy to grow steadily.

　　Prime Minister Modi called the railway "growth engine", and has announced his ideas to install the high speed railway and freight railway systems. The further cooperation between Japan and India in modernizing the Indian railway system will set another milestone in the relationship between Japan and India.

　　Three month ago, last July, the report on the India-Japan joint research concerning the high speed railway project was released. For these reasons, we believe that this seminar will be highly timely. We are looking forward to welcoming you at this forthcoming lecture.

Delegation of Indian Members of Parliament 2015 【PDF】