Beijing: Chinese firms are teaming with Indian companies to jointly bid for five high-speed railway projects in India in an apparent attempt to compete with Japan's plans to build bullet trains.
The Indian government will soon open the projects for public bidding and Tata Projects, one of the fastest growing infrastructure companies in India, is in discussions with an undisclosed Chinese company that owns the advanced technology used in the bid, state-run China Daily reported on Wednesday.
Industry insiders believe the potential partner would be one of China's major rail companies, CSR Corp or CNR Corp, though neither company would confirm they were part of the bid, the front page report from Mumbai titled "Chinese firms eye Indian rail projects" said.
The Daily's report came as Japan has announced financial, technical and operational support for bullet train projects in India during the current visit of PM Narendra Modi to Tokyo.
China is expected to unveil its investments in India during President Xi Jinping's visit to New Delhi, scheduled for the third week of September.
The issue of Chinese investments in Indian railways figured in yesterday's talks between Indian Commerce Minister Nirmala Sitharaman and her Chinese counterpart Gao Hucheng.
She told media after the talks that India wants Chinese investments and expertise to upgrade the existing tracks to increase the speed of the trains up to about 160 km besides modernising stations.
Asked whether India is open for bullet trains from China, she said "I would not close the door but what exactly it is going to be and will it work out which the railways can work out".
Sitharaman's talks with Chinese officials focussed on Chinese investments to be announced by Xi during his visit to India.
Vinayak Deshpande, managing director of Tata Projects, said his company has previously cooperated with CSR on a train project in Navi Mumbai.
"We like to use China's technology and products because they are proven to be reliable and the cost is relatively low," Deshpande was quoted by Daily as saying.
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