Ministry of Economy and Finance Approves First EDCF Project in India

Support for Intelligent Transportation System Construction on Nagpur-Mumbai Highway

[Sejong=Asia Economy Reporter Kim Hyunjung] On the 25th, the Ministry of Economy and Finance announced that it has approved a government support policy for the $170 million External Economic Cooperation Fund (EDCF) for the 'India Nagpur-Mumbai Expressway Intelligent Transportation System (ITS) Construction Project.' The EDCF is a concessional aid fund established in 1987 to support the economic development of developing countries and to promote economic cooperation between South Korea and developing countries.

The approved project is part of the Korea-India financial cooperation package to strengthen economic cooperation between the two countries, including infrastructure expansion in India, agreed upon during the Korea-India summit in May 2015. This is the first-ever EDCF project jointly undertaken by South Korea and India.

The Indian government is constructing a 701km expressway connecting Mumbai, a commercial hub in western India, and Nagpur, located in central India. To ensure efficient operation of this expressway, they requested EDCF support (concessional aid) from the Ministry of Economy and Finance to establish an Intelligent Traffic Management System (ITMS) and a Toll Collection System (TCS).

Considering the importance of this project for strengthening economic cooperation with India, a special strategic partner, and improving logistics between regions in India, the Ministry decided to provide $170 million in concessional aid (total project cost $190 million). Subsequent procedures such as signing implementation agreements and loan contracts will be carried out to execute the EDCF project.

This project is expected to contribute to the activation of transportation and logistics through real-time traffic information collection, reduction of traffic accident risks, and automatic toll collection. It will actively support the entry of Korean companies into the Indian infrastructure market through competitive bidding among Korean companies with strengths in ICT and transportation sectors.

Furthermore, leveraging this first Korea-India EDCF project as an opportunity, the Ministry plans to continuously discover and promote large-scale projects with India, a key partner in the New Southern Policy, thereby further strengthening future infrastructure cooperation.

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.