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China to pledge billions for India rail
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CHINA will pledge to invest billions of dollars for India’s rail network during a visit by President Xi Jinping this week, bringing more than diplomatic nicety to the neighbors’ first summit since Narendra Modi became Indian prime minister in May.
India and China are expected to sign a pact that will open the way for Chinese participation in new rail tracks, automated signaling for faster trains and modern stations that India’s British-built rail system desperately needs, having barely added 11,000 kilometers of track in the 67 years since independence.
China, which added 14,000 kilometers of track in the five years to 2011, is also pushing for a share of the lucrative high-speed train market in India, which it says would be cheaper than Japanese proposals.
“India has a strong, real desire to increase its cooperation with China and other countries to perfect and develop its rail system, and has concrete cooperation ideas,” Assistant Minister of Foreign Affairs Liu Jianchao told reporters ahead of Xi’s trip.
“India is considering building high-speed railways, and China has a positive attitude toward this.”
China’s consul general in Mumbai Liu Youfa told The Times of India that Chinese investment in the modernization of India’s railways could eventually touch US$50 billion.
China is looking to invest another US$50 billion in building India’s ports, roads and a project to link rivers, part of an infrastructure push that Modi has said is his top priority to crank up economic growth.
Chinese investment will also help narrow a trade deficit with India that hit US$31 billion in 2013.
Xi kicks off his visit in Ahmedabad, the commercial capital of Modi’s home state, Gujarat, on Wednesday when the nationalist Indian leader will be marking his 64th birthday.
Xi is set to launch one of two industrial parks focused on building power equipment in the state, which topped India’s growth rates when Modi was its chief minister.
China will set up another park in the neighboring Maharashtra that will be mainly involved in the auto sector.
The informal setting of the first meeting between Xi and Modi is expected to bring a personal touch.
“We hope that during this visit the Chinese and Indian relationship of the past 50-60 years would see a directional change,” India’s Trade Minister Nirmala Sitharaman said.
Before he arrives in India, Xi is visiting the Maldives, the Indian ocean island which India has long considered its area of influence.
He will also travel to Sri Lanka, where China is building a port less than 200 kilometers from India’s southern coast, part of a drive to build ports across the Indian Ocean some have dubbed a strategic “String of Pearls.”
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