Japan will loan $1billion for metro in Chennai

The first beneficiary of the coming together of the “samurai” and the “swami” will be the Chennai metro, for which Japan will give a $1 billion loan.

Japan will also extend a soft loan of $4.5 million over three years as part of the first tranche of funding for the 1,469-km Mumbai Delhi western freight corridor from Jawaharlal Nehru Port near Mumbai to Tughlaqabad near Delhi.

The move to invest in the southern city as Prime Minister Manmohan Singh arrived here Tuesday on a three-day visit to Japan is certain to give a fillip to bilateral relations. Indian officials openly acknowledge they owe the Taro Aso government in Japan a “debt of gratitude” for unreservedly backing the NSG waiver for India in Vienna.

Chennai’s connection to Japan stems not just from superstar Rajnikanth, whose films are dubbed in Japanese and hugely popular here. This country is also the major donor to war-torn Sri Lanka and Afghanistan, where New Delhi has huge stakes.

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