Japan’s agency for official development aid is supporting New Delhi’s battle against air pollution by making use of its training program on air-quality management in Tokyo and elsewhere.

As part of its initiative to help the government of the Indian capital, the Japan International Cooperation Agency said it is planning to invite two officials to Japan this year, after training two Indian officials in Japan for more than a month last summer.

“We have received positive comments from the Delhi government on our training program and we are happy to continue our support in their capacity development,” JICA said in an email interview.

In February 2017, the agency supported an air pollution seminar in Delhi and held discussions on the pollution issue with key figures from local authorities.

“Through discussions with them, we understood that the training program in Japan greatly benefits the needs of capacity development of the environmental department of the Delhi government,” JICA said.

The training program last year included lectures by academics and experts at the Environment Ministry as well as visits to steel and coal-fired power plants, where the Indian officials got a look at cutting-edge environmental equipment and pollution management systems.

In the meantime, JICA is also exploring collaboration with the Fukuoka Prefectural Government for the program because southwestern Japan has rich experience in air-pollution mitigation.

“Since its first friendly agreement with Delhi in 2007 in areas such as culture, education, industry, tourism, environment and urban development, Fukuoka has been receiving trainees from Delhi for over a decade,” the agency said. “There might be significant scope and possibilities which are worthy to explore synergy effects for more achievement by Fukuoka and JICA.”

Among other measures, the agency has extended soft loans amounting to ¥642 billion ($6 billion) and technical cooperation for the expansion of the Delhi Metro network as the agency expects metro ridership has significantly reduced the use of private vehicles, subsequently curbing pollutants.

The Delhi Metro network covers more than 200 km and carries roughly 3 million passengers daily, effecting a reduction in pollutants of as much as 600,000 tons per year, according to JICA.