To take forward the ambitious Mumbai-Ahmedabad high speed rail project announced by the government in December last year in partnership with Japan, a high-level Indian delegation led by Niti Aayog vice-chairman Arvind Panagariya and Foreign Secretary S. Jaishankar will attend a joint committee meeting on the project in Tokyo on Monday.

“During the meeting, the joint committee will finalise the schedule of project, terms related to the appointment of general consultant and procurement conditions,” the government said in a statement.

“Since the finalisation of the loan agreement will take time, the Government of India has requested a schedule of project implementation and the appointment of a General Consultant before finalisation of the loan agreement,” the statement added.

Economic Affairs Secretary Shaktikanta Das, Railway Board chairman AK Mital and Ramesh Abhishek, secretary in the department of industrial policy and promotion, are also part of the delegation.

The Japanese side would be led by Hiroto Izumi, Special Adviser to the Prime Minister of Japan.