India and Japan are to sign several agreements relating to trade, investments, security and people-to people ties following Prime Minister Dr Manmohan Singh's bilateral discussions with his Japanese counterpart Mr Shinzo Abe in Tokyo later today.Dr. Singh, who reached Tokyo on Monday evening on a three-day visit to Japan, has already set the tone of discussions by saying that there is enough scope for further strengthening the ties between New Delhi and Tokyo.
Meanwhile,Japanese Government has decided to sanction a soft loan of 71 billion yen for development of the second phase of the Mumbai Metro project. This will amount to 700 million US dollars. Japanese Cabinet secretary to the prime minister office, Tomohika Taniguchi, told Indian media that the formal announcement will be made by the Prime Minister after the Summit level discussions this evening. He said this is one of the largest sanctions to a single project. The first phase of the Mumbai metro project is near completion.
He said both India and Japan have agreed to co-finance a joint feasibility study over starting up a high speed rail on Mumbai-Ahmedabad route. The study will be completed in an year or two and private companies will be heavily involved. Both the countries will also set up a Joint Study Group over export of Flying Boat.
The Cabinet Secretary also said 17.7 billion yen will be sanctioned to the second phase of the Indian Institute of Hyderabad.