New Delhi, March 23 : Days after the visit of French Trade Minister Frank Riester, French Minister for Transport Jean-Baptiste Djebbari will be on a three-day visit to India from Thursday to strengthen Indo-French cooperation in land, air and sea transport with a focus on sustainable solutions. Minister Djebbari will be visiting Delhi, Hyderabad and Mumbai. In Delhi, he will hold talks with Ports and Shipping Minister Sarbananda Sonowal, to discuss the contribution of French companies to developing 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 meet Civil Aviation Minister Jyotiraditya Scindia on civil aviation cooperation between France and India, to 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, a French Embassy statement said today. He will highlight France’s support to clean mobility in India. He will also hold talks with Housing and Urban Affairs Minister Hardeep Puri, on new mobility solutions, including urban cable cars, and an Indo-French seminar for sustainable urban development, proposed to be organised jointly in the fall. Joined by representatives of French land transport companies active in India, Minister Djebbari will visit New Delhi Railway Station, where French group Alstom will display one of the 800 electric locomotives that are being entirely built in India. He 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. In Hyderabad, he will attend the opening ceremony of WINGS India 2022 and speak at the ministerial plenary session. 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. Airbus airplanes accounting for 75 % of Indian airline fleets. He will also interact with a visiting delegation of seven companies from France that are carrying out an MRO (Maintenance Repair and Operations) business roadshow in Bengaluru, Mumbai and Hyderabad. In the Mumbai leg of his visit, Minister Djebbari will visit Nhava Sheva Port, the largest container port in India. French transport and logistics group CMA-CGM in India is participating in the call for tenders for 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. During his visit, the Minister 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, the statement said. RN