France to help India build first high-speed rail link

France is likely to help India build its first high-speed rail link from Mumbai to Ahmedabad and the two countries may sign a deal on bilateral cooperation in the sector during French President François Hollande’s visit to New Delhi on Thursday.

They are also expected to ink a deal for supply of French civilian helicopters to India.

French Ambassador to India, Francois Richier, on Monday confirmed that the much-hyped agreement for supply of 126 French Rafale war planes to Indian Air Force would not be inked during the two-day visit of Hollande. The deal between French company AREVA and the Nuclear Power Corporation of India Limited for the proposed atomic power plant at Jaitapur in Maharashtra would not be signed too, he added.

Diplomatic sources, however, said the two countries would sign a series of inter-governmental agreements as well as several commercial deals, including about a dozen for research and development cooperation between Indian and French companies during Hollande’s visit to New Delhi and Mumbai.

Hollande took over as the French President in May 2012 and the visit to India this week is going to be his first to any country in Asia. Sources in New Delhi said bilateral parleys between Hollande and Prime Minister Manmohan Singh would be followed by signing of an agreement between Indian Railways and Société Nationale des Chemins de fer Français (the national rail operator of France) for the high-speed rail link between Mumbai and Ahmedabad.

The SNCF Voyages – a wing of the SNCF –  now runs the Train à Grande Vitesse or TGV, the high-speed rail service of France.

The 534-km-long Mumbai-Ahmedabad stretch is one of the six corridors the Indian Railways has identified to launch high-speed trains. New Delhi has also started discussions with Japan and China seeking cooperation for launching high-speed rail services in India.

Speaking at Delhi-based think-tank Observer Research Foundation on Monday, Richier said that the negotiation between the two countries for supply of Rafale war-planes to Indian Air Force was making steady progress, although it would take some more time to ink the deal.

He also said that France had completed the safety review of the European Pressure Reactors, which the AREVA would install at the nuclear power plants at Jaitapur in Maharashtra, in the aftermath of the 2011 mishap at Fukushima in Japan.

Asked if India’s Civil Liability for Nuclear Damage Act has been hindering the launch of bilateral cooperation in civil nuclear cooperation, Richier said that Paris had been discussing with New Delhi about the contents of the legislation and its implication for bilateral civil nuclear cooperation.