India Inks MoU With ADB For 37 Bn Japanese Yen loan For Delhi-Meerut Regional Rapid Transit System Corridor

New Delhi, Dec 19 (KNN) The Government of India has signed an agreement with Asian Development Bank (ADB) for a 37 billion Japanese Yen (USD 250 million) loan that will continue financing the construction of the 82-kilometre Delhi-Meerut Regional Rapid Transit System (RRTS) corridor.

The signatories to the loan agreement were Juhi Mukherjee, Joint Secretary, Department of Economic Affairs, Ministry of Finance, for the Government of India, and Hoe Yun Jeong, Deputy Country Director, and Officer-in-Charge of the India Resident Mission, for ADB.

Earlier, ADB had approved a USD 1,049 million Multi-Tranche Financing Facility (MFF) for the project in 2020 to support construction of RRTS, the first of three priority rail corridors planned under the NCR Regional Plan 2021, to connect Delhi to other cities in adjoining states.

The RRTS will have multi-modal hubs to ensure smooth interchange with other transport modes. The first tranche of the ADB loan amounted to USD 500 million with another USD 500 million co-financed by AIIB.

Speaking on the occasion, Mukherjee stated that the investment project will enable the RRTS to improve urban mobility, and the project’s economic impacts will also benefit women and the differently abled.

“ADB financing is helping the construction of the corridor which will allow people to travel by a low carbon and efficient railway system and save millions of tons of CO2 emissions and play a significant role in climate change mitigation,” Jeong said.

The 82-km corridor will provide fast, safe, and high-capacity commuter transit services, expanding economic and employment opportunities in the region by cutting travel time from 3-4 hours to about 1 hour.

(KNN Bureau)