Report

Mr. Tenpei Oda, Deputy General Manager of Indian High-Speed Rail Division, International Affairs Headquarters, East Japan Railway Company, gave a lecture on the Mumbai-Ahmedabad High Speed Rail Project. At the Japan-India Summit in 2015, the Governments of Japan and India signed a Memorandum of Cooperation on High-Speed Railways. They decided to adopt Japan’s bullet train (Shinkansen) system to develop new high-speed railway planned to start its operation in 2023. East Japan Railway Company supports the project in the field of human resource development and technical support through its subsidiary, Nippon Consultants Co., Ltd., which has already started a part of its training programs. Some High Speed Rail company executives visited Japan and actively joined discussion; they said they would like to incorporate strengths of Japan's railway system to their business, such as safety, accuracy, operational efficiency, and development of environment around stations. Mr. Oda mentioned importance of documentation of tacit knowledge and skills when teaching technologies to Indian staff and consideration for linguistic differences and cultural diversity in order to make the project success. He concluded the speech by saying that he would like to ask for more advises of people familiar with India's internal affairs.