French Minister Djebbari meets Hardeep Singh Puri, discuss urbanization, smart cities
Mar 24, 2022
New Delhi [India], March 24 : Visiting French Minister Jean-Baptiste Djebbari on Thursday met with Union Minister Hardeep Singh Puri and discussed the challenges India faces due to rapid urbanization and the building of smart cities.
"French Minister Jean-Baptiste Djebbari met Hardeep Singh Puri, Union Minister for Housing & Urban Affairs to discuss how France can help India meet the challenges of rapid urbanization and build Smart Cities. In particular, France will increase its support for smart & clean urban mobility solutions," tweeted Emmanuel Lenain, Ambassador of France to India.
The French Minister is scheduled to highlight his country's support to clean mobility in India. He will hold discussions with Puri on new mobility solutions, including urban cable cars, and an Indo-French seminar for sustainable urban development proposed to be organised jointly by representatives of French land transport companies active in India.
He will visit also the New Delhi Railway Station, where French group Alstom will display one of the 800 electric locomotives that are being entirely built in India.
Throughout his visit, Minister Djebbari will interact with French companies active in India in the fields of energy, land transport, and aeronautics. He will encourage them to continue investing in India's amazing potential and help meet India's strategic goals.
On day one of his three-day visit, Djebbari paid tributes to Mahatma Gandhi at Rajghat. 
"In Delhi on the first day of his India visit, French Minister of Transport @Djebbari_JB paid tribute to #MahatmaGandhi at Rajghat. Now more than ever, we should heed the Mahatma's message of peace & non-violence," tweeted Lenain.
Djebbari will also be visiting Delhi, Hyderabad and Mumbai. The visit aims to strengthen Indo-French cooperation in land, air and sea transport with a focus on sustainable solutions, read the press release of the Consulate General of France in Bangalore
In Delhi, Djebbari will hold talks with the Minister of Ports, Shipping and Waterways, Sarbananda Sonowal, to discuss the contribution of French companies to develop Indian ports and logistics value chain, as well as the implementation of the joint roadmap on blue economy and ocean governance, adopted by France and India in February 2022.
He will also meet the Minister of Civil Aviation, Jyotiraditya Scindia, on civil aviation cooperation between France and India. He will underscore the commitment of French companies towards meeting the needs of the fast-growing Indian civil aviation sector. He will also discuss Indo-French cooperation on decarbonising air transport, added the release.
Djebbari will visit IElectrix-Shakti, a smart grid demonstrator combining solar photovoltaic technology, battery storage, smart transformer and energy management system.
This pilot project, co-funded by the EU, aims at increasing self-consumption of solar energy, power quality, prosumer involvement, and electricity supply resilience. It is implemented by a consortium led by Enedis in partnership with Tata Power-DDL, Schneider Electric, Odit-e, and Geco Global, added the release.
In the second leg of his visit, the Minister will attend the opening ceremony of WINGS India 2022 and speak at the ministerial plenary session in Hyderabad.
Building on the strong presence of French aeronautics companies in India, he will announce the project of creating a French aeronautics cluster in India and France's support to the sustainable aviation fuel value chain in India.
He will visit French exhibitors, including Airbus, which will showcase an A350 aircraft. This will be an occasion to witness the excellent Indo-French cooperation in the aeronautics sector, Airbus aeroplanes accounting for 75 per cent of Indian airline fleets.
Djebbari will interact with a visiting delegation of seven companies from France that are carrying out an MRO business roadshow in Bengaluru, Mumbai and Hyderabad, added the release.
In the last leg of his visit, Minister Djebbari will visit Nhava Sheva Port, the largest container port in India in Mumbai.
French transport and logistics group CMA-CGM in India is participating in the call for tenders for the concession of the Nhava Sheva Container Terminal in Mumbai. French logistics companies can provide their world-class expertise to implement "port to last mile" solutions in India.
