India and the Asian Development Bank (ADB) on September 8, 2020 signed a 500 million US dollar loan for Delhi-Meerut Regional Rapid Transit System (RRTS) corridor.
- The first tranche of a total one billion dollar facility, to build a modern, high-speed 82-kilometer Delhi-Meerut RRTS corridor will improve regional connectivity and mobility in India’s national capital region (NCR).
- TThe first tranche 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.
- With a design speed of 180 kilometer per hour and high-frequency operations of every 5 to 10 minutes, the 82-kilometer corridor connecting Sarai Kale Khan in Delhi to Modipuram in Meerut in Uttar Pradesh is expected to reduce the journey time to about one hour from the present 3 to 4 hours.
- The RRTS will have multimodal hubs to ensure smooth interchange with other transport modes.
