India-Austria to work on road transport, safety, infrastructure development

The government Thursday gave its nod for an agreement between India and Austria on technology cooperation in road infrastructure. The Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) aims to create an effective framework for bilateral cooperation in the field of road transportation, roads/highways infrastructure development, management and administration, road safety and intelligent transport systems between both countries.

"The Union Cabinet, chaired by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, has approved the signing of the MoU between the Ministry of Road Transport and Highways, India and the Federal Ministry of Transport, Innovation and Technology, Austria on technology cooperation in the road infrastructure sector," an official statement said. The MoU will strengthen ties, promote long-standing bilateral relations and enhance trade and regional integration between both the countries, it added.

"The Indo-Austrian bilateral cooperation in the road transport sector would be beneficial both from the perspective of enhanced road safety as well as attractive financing possibilities for the sector, thus fostering and intensifying the already good relations between the two countries, through the proposed MoU in the transport sector," it said. India has had good diplomatic relations with Austria since the establishment of bilateral ties between the two countries in 1949.

Both countries share a history of friendly economic and diplomatic relations, the statement said. Austria has state-of-the-art technologies for roads and highways, such as electronic toll systems, intelligent transportation systems, traffic management systems, tunnel monitoring systems, geo-mapping and landslide protection measures.