The second meeting of the Russian-Indian Working Group on Roads and Intelligent Transport Systems was held in Moscow, Russia recently. The meeting was chaired jointly by Anurag Jain, Secretary, Ministry of Road Transport and Highways of the Republic of India and Dmitry Zverev, State Secretary and Deputy Minister of Road Transport of the Russian Federation.
The two sides discussed ways to facilitate the exchange and sharing of the information in the areas of improving technologies and materials in road and bridge construction and promote joint research in these fields. Opportunities to develop mutual investments in highways and transport infrastructure related programs/projects, was also discussed in the meeting.
During the meeting, the Russian party proposed for implementation in the territory of the Republic of India and investment project “Barrier-free toll collection system based on satellite navigation technology” developed on the basis of the latest Russian and Indian technologies in the field of satellite navigation, telecommunications and information technologies. Whereas Indian side proposed that NHAI is considering multiparty interoperable system for “Barrier-free Toll collection system based on satellite navigation technology”. India would be issuing bids in Transparent manner in which all leading global players are encouraged to participate including Russian companies.
The Parties noted the mutual interest in the issues of cooperation in the field of high technologies, including unmanned and highly automated transport and considered it advisable for the Ministry of Transport of the Russian Federation and the Ministry of Road Transport and Highways of India to exchange experience on practical solutions to organize freight transportation on public roads using highly automated vehicles, including those moving in autonomous mode.
Both the Sides have agreed to explore possibility of cooperation between Russian University of Transport and Indian Academy of Highways Engineers (IAHE) in the area of capacity building and exchange of knowledge.
