Press Release

New Delhi, 11st February 2021: The 9th Joint Coordination Committee (JCC) meeting of the Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA) supported ‘Capacity Development Project on Highways in Mountainous Regions' was organized online by the Ministry of Road Transport and Highways (MoRTH) today. The Technical Cooperation (TC) Project, commenced in April 2016, with an aim to enhance institutional capacity of developing highways in mountainous regions. This JCC was the final meeting before closing of the project in March, 2022.

Mr. S.K. Nirmal, Additional Director General (Zone-II &V) , MoRTH joined the JCC meeting as the chairperson. SAITO Mitsunori, Chief Representative, JICA India gave a short speech at the meeting in the presence of other dignitaries and officials from Government of India (MoRTH, National Highways & Infrastructure Development Corporation Ltd. (NHIDCL), and National Highway Authority of India (NHAI)), Embassy of Japan and JICA.

Achievements of each project activities and the overall accomplishment of the project was discussed in the meeting. One of the most significant achievements is the five technical guideline development in the field of Planning, Tunnel, Slope Protection, Bridge and Operation and Maintenance. MoRTH has successfully approved these guidelines on 31st January, 2022 and will publish them soon. The meeting also touched upon successful implementation of the Model activities including DPR recommendation for NH54 in Assam and NH717 in West Bengal and Technical transfer to Implement Pilot Project of NH10 in Sikkim.

Speaking on the occasion, Mr. SAITO Mitsunori, Chief Representative, JICA India said, " JICA will support India's efforts to improve road connectivity through enhancing sustainability and resilience. This is a milestone event for JICA in terms of our assistance towards road sector development in India. We believe that the project has contributed significantly for development of highways in mountainous regions of the country. We are very pleased to contribute to the development of five technical guidelines, which are finally adopted as MoRTH guidelines. Based on the successful completion of this project, we will continue to provide our support to enhance capacity development for the maintenance of resilient mountainous highways as a new technical cooperation from April 2022."

Since 2007 JICA has provided several technical cooperation projects towards the road sector in India including capacity development of sustainable expressways (2007-2011), capacity development for highway operation and maintenance Project (2013-2015), and the Capacity Development Project on Highways in Mountainous Regions (2016-2022). The ongoing Technical Cooperation Project is focused more on road development in mountainous areas, output of which has contributed to conceptualisation of new technical cooperation which will be initiated from April 2022.

Field Survey NH21 (November 2017)
©JICA TC Team

Pilot project site in NH10 in Sikkim
©JICA TC Team

Country Focused Training in Japan
©JICA TC Team

Final JCC meeting (Online)
©JICA

About JICA

Established, by a specific law, as an incorporated administrative institution under the Government of Japan, the Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA) aims to contribute to the promotion of international cooperation, as a sole Japanese governmental agency in charge of ODA implementation. JICA is the world's largest bilateral donor agency. JICA works as a bridge between Japan and emerging countries, and provides assistance in forms of loan, grant and technical cooperation so that the emerging countries can strengthen their capabilities.

• JICA India Office Web
• JICA India Brochure
• JICA Facebook Page (external link)

For further information, please contact:

JICA India Office
Shusaku Takada / Aishwarya Mishra
+91 11 49097000
Takada.Shusaku@jica.go.jp
Mishra-Aishwarya@jica.go.jp

Edelman India
Rakhi Aurora
(+91) 9818021223/ 9999427000
Rakhi.Aurora@edelman.com