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Japan PM arrives today for talks with Modi, bullet train project
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(File Photo) |
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Darshan Desai | 13 Sep, 2017
The city of Ahmedabad is being decked up to welcome Japanese Prime
Minister Shinzo Abe who arrives on Wednesday on a two-day visit during
which he will hold talks with Prime Minister Narendra Modi and both will
lay the foundation stone of the ambitious Rs 1.08 lakh crore
Ahmedabad-Mumbai bullet train project.
Potholed roads on the
route of the Japanese delegation are being resurfaced at a frantic pace.
Many city roads have been closed during various time of the two-day
visit. A litany of performances have been organised to showcase the
cultural diversity of the country. The city had hosted Chinese President
Xi Jinping in 2015.
According to the official itinerary issued
here on Tuesday, Prime Minister Abe and Prime Minister Modi would fly
into Ahmedabad on Wednesday afternoon and drive down straight to Mahatma
Gandhi's Sabarmati Ashram in the evening. They would visit the iconic
16th century mosque in the old city, Sidi Saiyad Mosque, known for its
window filigree work synonymous with Ahmedabad.
They would conclude with a dinner and a closed door meeting at a heritage hotel - House of MG - next to this mosque.
The
next morning, on Thursday, Abe and Modi would participate in the
foundation stone laying ceremony of the much-touted Ahmedabad-Mumbai
bullet train at Sabarmati Athletic Grounds near Sabarmati railway
station.
Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA) and the
Union Railway Ministry have already inked a Memorandum of Understanding
for the 508-km corridor, with Japan to partially fund the entire
project.
With capacity to accommodate 750 people, the bullet
train is expected to reduce travel time between the two cities from
seven to roughly three hours. The train project, which is expected to be
commissioned by the year 2022, will have a dozen halts. A 21-km-long
tunnel will be dug between Boisar and BKC in Mumbai, seven km of which
will be under sea.
The next schedule of the two dignitaries would
be the the 12th India-Japan Annual Summit at the sprawling auditorium
complex Mahatma Mandir in state capital Gandhinagar. This will be the
fourth annual summit between Modi and Abe, where they are expected to
review the progress in the multifaceted cooperation between India and
Japan under the framework of their 'Special Strategic and Global
Partnership'. The summit comes amid rising tension in the region
following a nuclear test by North Korea and new Chinese aggressiveness
in the South China Sea.
The two countries are expected to sign
multiple economic deals and launch projects, including a Suzuki car
manufacturing plant at Hansalpur, about 170 km from Ahmedabad, through
remote control. A parallel CEO conference has also been planned.
The
two Prime Ministers will also visit Dandi Kutir, a museum dedicated to
Mahatma Gandhi, at the Mahatma Mandir. They would later visit Science
City for a dinner hosted by Gujarat Chief Minister Vijay Rupani before
the Japanese Prime Minister leaves for Tokyo on Thursday night.
Prime
Minister Modi in a series of tweets has said that India truly values
its relationship with Japan and he looks forward to welcoming his
Japanese counterpart for the fourth annual summit.
"I look forward to welcoming PM @AbeShinzo. I will be hosting him in Gujarat in our fourth annual summit together.
"PM
@AbeShinzo and I will attend a wide range of programmes on 13th and
14th September 2017, aimed at further boosting India-Japan ties," he
tweeted.
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Customs Exchange Rates |
Currency |
Import |
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US Dollar
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87.50
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Euro
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75.65 |
Japanese
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58.85 |
56.85 |
As on 13 Aug, 2022 |
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