Delhi-Meerut RRTS: Centre inks USD 500 million loan pact with ADB

Ghaziabad/Meerut: In a major boost to the Delhi-Ghaziabad-Meerut regional rapid transit system (RRTS) project, the Union government on Tuesday inked a loan pact of USD 500 million with Asian Development Bank. This is the first tranche of the approved USD 1 billion ADB loan for the 82-km railway network.
“The proceeds of this tranche of USD 500 million (Rs 3,750 crore) loan will be used for financing civil work, tracks, station buildings, multi-modal hubs, maintenance depots, and traction and power supply of the Delhi-Ghaziabad-Meerut RRTS corridor,” said Sudhir Sharma, the spokesperson for National Capital Region Transport Corporation (NCRTC), which is executing the project.
The signatories to the loan agreement were Sameer Kumar Khare, additional secretary (Fund Bank and ADB) of the department of economic affairs, Union finance ministry, and Kenichi Yokoyama, the country director of ADB’s India Resident Mission.
In July, the UP government released Rs 100 crore for the project. The amount was part of the Rs 900 crore, which the UP government had allocated to the project in its state budget 2020-21 in February this year. The Centre in this year’s Union budget also allocated Rs 2,487 crore for all its RRTS projects, including the Delhi-Ghaziabad-Meerut RRTS corridor, currently being undertaken on a priority basis.
Meanwhile, NCRTC has completed the shifting of high-tension lines near Modipuram Depot in Meerut. With this, a total of 25 high-tension lines infringing the Delhi-Ghaziabad-Meerut RRTS Corridor has been shifted.
The RRTS corridor is expected to become operational by March 2024 at an estimated completion cost of Rs 30,274 crore. Once complete, high-speed trains with an average speed of 100km/hr will cover the 82km distance between Meerut and New Delhi via Ghaziabad in less than 55 minutes. As per the detailed project report, the daily ridership is expected to be more than 8 lakh.
The corridor will have 24 stations, including two depots at Duhai and Modipuram. Trains will originate from Sarai Kale Khan in Delhi, and Modipuram in Meerut will be the last stop. All along the 82km length of the RRTS corridor, only 11.5km section will be underground and have four stations — Anand Vihar in Delhi and Meerut Central, Bhaisali and Begumpul in Meerut.
“This RRTS is first of the three prioritised corridors planned for implementation in the country. The other two are Delhi-Gurgaon-Alwar and Delhi-Panipat,” Sharma said.