India, Japan to sign MoC on sustainable urban development

The union cabinet, chaired by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, has approved the signing of a Memorandum of Cooperation (MoC) on sustainable urban development between the Ministry of Housing and Urban Affairs of the Government of India and the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure, Transport, and Tourism of the Government of Japan, which supersedes an existing MoU on Urban Development signed in 2007. A Joint Working Group (JWG) will be formed to strategise and implement cooperation programmes within the framework of the MoC. The Joint Working Group will meet once a year, in Japan and India alternately. The cooperation under this MoC will begin on the date of signature and will last for five years. Following that, it can be automatically renewed for up to five years at a time. The MoC will promote strong, deep, and long-term bilateral cooperation between the two countries in the field of Sustainable Urban Development. Employment opportunities are expected in the areas of sustainable urban development, smart cities development, including urban planning, urban flood management, affordable housing (including rental housing), urban transport (including Intelligent Transport Management System, Transit-Oriented Development and Multimodal Integration) and disaster resilient development. The MoC's goals are to facilitate and strengthen technical cooperation between India and Japan in the areas of sustainable urban development, such as: Urban planning Smart city development Affordable housing (including rental housing) Urban flood management Sewerage and wastewater management Intelligent transportation management systems Transit-oriented development Multimodal integration Disaster-resilient development The proposed Memorandum of Cooperation will allow for the exchange of key learnings and best practices in the aforementioned areas. Image SourceAlso read: Japan to lend Rs 14k cr to India for metro, infra projects