ADB, India sign 500 million US dollar loan for Delhi-Meerut Regional Rapid Transit System Corridor

The Asian Development Bank (ADB) and the Indian government have signed a 500 million US dollar loan for the Delhi-Meerut Regional Rapid Transit System Corridor.

The signed loan is a first tranche of the ADB approved one billion- dollar loan facility, to build a high-speed, modern, 82-km Delhi-Meerut RRTS Corridor that will improve the regional connectivity and mobility in India’s National capital Region (NCR).

The loan agreement for Delhi-Meerut Regional Rapid Transit System (RRTS) investment project was signed between Additional Secretary in the Ministry of Finance, Sameer Khare, and Country Director of ADB’s India Resident Mission, Kenichi Yokoyama.

Key Highlights:

• The first tranche loan will be supporting the construction of the first of three priority rail corridors that are planned under the NCR Regional Plan 2021 to connect Delhi to other cities in the adjoining states.

• The project will aim at providing better connectivity to allow other towns in the NCR to develop as urban economic centres surrounded by the residential areas while also easing the concentration pressure on Delhi.

• The corridor development will also have a huge demonstration effect. It will pave the way for the paradigm shift in the mobility and pattern of urban development within the region.

Significance of Delhi-Meerut RRTS:

The 82-km Delhi-Meerut Regional Rapid Transit System Corridor, with a design speed of 180 km per hour and high-frequency operations of every 5 to 10 minutes, will connect Sarai Kale Khan in Delhi to Modipuram in Meerut in UP. It is expected to reduce the journey time to about 1 hour from the present 3 to 4 hours.

The RRTS will also have multimodal hubs to ensure the smooth interchange with the other transport modes.

ADB approved $1 billion package: Background

The officials of NCR Transport authority had confirmed on August 18, 2020, that ADB has approved a loan of $1 billion for the construction of the high speed, Delhi-Meerut Regional Rapid Transit System (RRTS).

As per the rail project report, about 8 lakh passengers will be boarding the high-speed RRTS trains for the short and long-distance commuting every day.