Japan interested in Karnataka's bullet train project: CM

Bangalore, Sept 16: Japan has evinced interest in funding and sharing technology in a bullet train project in Karnataka, Chief Minister Siddaramaiah said here today. Siddaramaiah said he had a meeting with Japan's Minister for Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology, Hakubun Shimomura, on the sidelines of the World Economic Forum meeting at Dalian in China.

The Japanese side evinced interest in a high speed (bullet) train project in terms of technology and investment and promised to send a delegation to Bangalore on an exploratory visit, the Chief Minister said in a media briefing on his three-day China trip.

"A bullet train between Bangalore and Mysore (about 140 kms) is necessary as we want to decongest Bangalore. One can reach Mysore in 30 minutes (by bullet train)", said Siddaramaiah, who appeared impressed by his eight-minute travel by a high speed train from Shanghai central to Pudong international airport covering a distance of 50 kms.

He said the Dalian convention centre was built by the Chinese to host WEF meeting in just 10 months, adding his government is inspired by the idea and wants to build an international convention centre near Bangalore airport at Devanahally on PPP model at a cost of Rs 400 crore to Rs 500 crore.

The Chief Minister, who was accompanied by a 14-member business group and nine-member official team, said China's growth and development are impressive.

"We have to learn and imbibe the quality (of infrastructure) and vision from them", he remarked. State officials said Malaysia's Q1 Group expressed interest in investing in e-retail, IT and education sectors in Karnataka while Spanish firm Acciona did so in waste water treatment, renewable energy projects and wind energy when Siddaramaiah held one-on-one discussions with top executives of the two companies.

The CM sought to showcase investment opportunities in sectors like IT, BT, aerospace, manufacturing, food processing and tourism and wind energy during his interactions with senior executives of several companies as also at a road-show that Karnataka government hosted at Dalian attended by 150 investors and entrepreneurs, officials said.

PTI