NDB injects $500-mn booster in RRTS corridor

The New Development Bank (NDB) has approved a $500 million funding booster amounting to about ₹3,700 crore into the Delhi-Ghaziabad-Meerut RRTS Corridor. The funds are meant to be invested to finance rolling stock, signalling system, operational structures, among others. Works of the corridor and the agreement was signed between NDB and Ministry of Housing and Urban Affairs (MoHUA). MD OF NCRTC, Vinay Kumar Singh, informed that the project will develop as an efficient and sustainable regional passenger transport system and reduce congestion by offering the public an alternative mode of transport and encourage them in settling in surrounding cities. The 82-km Delhi-Ghaziabad-Meerut RRTS corridor with a project cost of ₹30,274 crore will be co-financed under a parallel financing arrangement with the Asian Development Bank (ADB) and the Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank (AIIB). In September this year, a loan agreement of $500 million was signed with ADB for funding the same corridor. The Delhi-Ghaziabad-Meerut RRTS corridor will have a total of 24 stations and will be elevated for around 70.5 km and 11.5 km of its stretch will be underground. The 17-km long priority section between Sahibabad and Duhai of this corridor is scheduled to commence operations in 2023 and the entire corridor will be opened to the public by 2025.