This will be the first tranche of total $1 billion facility that the multilateral funding agency had agreed for the infrastructure project that will improve regional connectivity and mobility in India's national capital region (NCR).

The loan agreement was signed by Sameer Kumar Khare, Additional Secretary, Fund Bank and ADB, Department of Economic Affairs in the Ministry of Finance and Kenichi Yokoyama, Country Director of ADB's India Resident Mission.

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

"The project will provide better connectivity to allow other towns in the NCR to develop as urban economic centres surrounded by residential areas while easing the concentration pressure on Delhi," said Khare.

"Development of this corridor will have a huge demonstration effect and pave the way for a paradigm shift in mobility and the pattern of urban development within the region."

Yokoyama said: "The project is expected to have a transformational impact on the development trajectory of the national capital region by introducing high-level technologies for RRTS, signalling, and station designs.

"Besides, the project will also support transit-oriented development (TOD) with systematic urban and land use planning around the RRTS corridor while promoting value capture financing (VCF) to generate additional municipal revenues."

With a design speed of 180 km per hour and high-frequency operations of every 5-10 minutes, the 82-km corridor connecting Sarai Kale Khan in Delhi to Modipuram in Meerut in Uttar Pradesh is expected to reduce the journey time to about 1 hour from the present 3-4 hours. The RRTS will have multimodal hubs to ensure smooth interchange with other transport modes.

The first tranche financing will be used for constructing electrified tracks, signalling systems, multimodal hubs and stations with design features that are friendly to elderly, women, children and the disabled.

It will also support the National Capital Region Transport Corporation (NCRTC) in drafting action plans on TOD, VCF instruments and public-private partnership (PPP) initiatives, setting up a smart-technology based platform, and formulating a gender-friendly workplace policy.

A $3 million grant from ADB's Japan Fund for Poverty Reduction will support various activities, including provision of visual, hearing and mobility aids, such as wheelchairs for differently abled persons. Training for women and differently abled on safe mobility and employment opportunities and behavioral change for public transport providers will also be given.

The ADB-administered multi-donor Urban Climate Change Resilience Trust Fund will provide $2.89 million to support innovations in building information modeling, universal access design features, TOD and VCF.