India and Finland sign memorandum on road transport

India and Finland yesterday night signed a memorandum of cooperation in road transport.

The memorandum was signed between minister for road transport and highways Kamal Nath at Helsinki yesterday during his visit to Finland and Anu Vehviläinen, minister of transport, Finland.

The memorandum envisages exchange of information between road transport and road construction officials and experts of the two countries especially in the fields of construction operation and maintenance of highways and roads, planning and information management system for road administration, forms of private investments for public private partnership for construction and upgrading of roads including procedure for competitive bidding, supervision and implementation, road traffic safety, intelligent transportation systems, intermodal transportation and transportation to meet the special needs of the disabled.

The two countries also intend to promote and develop business relations between consultancy and engineering companies in the field of roads, manufacturers of equipment, material and other products for the sector to arrive at industrial cooperation agreements and transfers of technology.

Under the memorandum an Indo-Finnish joint working group (JWG) has been established by the two countries to promote and activate the institutional cooperation.

The minister has extended an invitation to convene the first meeting of the JWG in India within next three months and also invited Ms Vehviläinen to visit India.