82 km RRTS project gets $1 billion funding from ADB
New Delhi, Aug 18 (IANS) In a mega boost to the 82 km long Delhi-Ghaziabad-Meerut RRTS corridor, the Asian Development Bank (ADB) on Tuesday approved a $1 billion funding for the project being implemented by the National Capital Region Transport Corporation (NCRTC).
Reacting to the development, Vinay Kumar Singh, Managing Direction of NCRTC, said in a statement, “The approval of $1.049 billion (approximately Rs 7,500 crore) funding package by the ADB for the high-speed, high-capacity Delhi-Ghaziabad-Meerut RRTS reflects upon the funding agency’s trust in the project that promises to transform regional mobility besides giving push to polycentric economic development across the region.”
According to the NCRTC, Delhi accounts for 37 per cent of the population of the National Capital Region (NCR). The project is critical for decongesting Delhi and reducing air pollution significantly on a sustainable basis.
Along with this, the project will also result in a paradigm shift in mobility across the NCR by providing equitable, fast, reliable, safe, comfortable, efficient and sustainable mobility solution, it said.
The NCRTC said that financing from ADB for the project will be implemented in multiple tranches between August 2020 and May 2025. It said that the loan will be used for financing civil works, tracks, station buildings, multi-modal hubs, maintenance depots, traction and power supply of the Delhi-Ghaziabad-Meerut RRTS corridor.
Apart from this, the ADB-administered Japan Fund for building institutional capacity, technological advancements and poverty reduction and two other grants amounting to $8 million (approximately Rs 60 crore) will be provided to finance measures for safe mobility of the elderly, women, children and the differently-abled and to improve economic opportunities for women and provisions of public toilets around RRTS stations.
RRTS is a first of its kind project in India and it will use many state-of-the-art technologies for the first time, including ETCS Level-2 signalling systems and ballastless tracks suitable for 180 kmph speed.
Rolling Stock for the project is being designed and manufactured in Gujarat’s Savli under the Make in India initiative of the government. The 17-km long priority section between Sahibabad and Duhai of the Delhi-Ghaziabad-Meerut RRTS corridor is scheduled to commence operations in 2023. The full 82 km of the corridor will be opened for public by 2025.
–IANS
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