London:
Finance Minister P Chidambaram on Thursday donned a hard hat as he visited a construction site of the new Crossrail project in east London along with his British counterpart George Osborne.
Wearing an orange colour construction worker suit, Mr Chidambaram was shown around the site by Mr Osborne.
Crossrail is a new railway across London linking Maidenhead and Heathrow in the west with Shenfield and Abbey Wood in the east.
The Crossrail would provide direct services between Canary Wharf, the City, the West End and Heathrow Airport.
Mr Chidambaram is in London in connection with meeting with leading UK investors and he will also hold a meeting with the British Chancellor of Exchequer George Osborne.
Referring to Chidambaram visiting the Crossrail project, Mr Osborne said: "I know there are 14-15 Indian cities looking to have metro systems. So, we can learn from each other and invest in each other's infrastructure.
"I think London can become a centre where money is raised from around the world to invest in infrastructure," he said.
Mr Osborne said his government's specific focus is on encouraging SMEs (Small and Medium Enterprises) to do more business with India.
"Lot of SME connections between India and Britain have been family connections. I want to help those as well as the companies who have never done trade and investment with India to do more," he said.
Mr Osborne said Tata is helping small firms with advice.
Another initiative involves a specific sum of money given to UKTI (UK Trade and Investment) last year to increase the help they give to SME businesses.
"My message would be that if you have a business in Britain and you have wondered about entering the Indian market, now is a great time to try," Mr Osborne said.
Following the India-UK Economic and Financial Dialogue, Mr Chidambaram will leave for Paris as part of his three-nation tour which will conclude in Qatar on May 18.