The Government of India, the Ministry of Housing and Urban Affairs, National Capital Region Transport Corporation and the New Development Bank (NDB) signed a loan agreement for lending $500 million for the Delhi-Ghaziabad-Meerut Regional Rapid Transit System Project to provide fast, reliable, safe and comfortable public transport system in the National Capital Region (NCR). Fast transit system will support in achieving the goal of sustainable urban development in NCR region including National Capital Territory of Delhi. The environment friendly and very low emission RRTS will carry more people at high speed (average speed 100 km per hour) while occupying just three mtr space on land thus reducing congestion on the roads.
NDB funds will also be utilised for procuring signalling, telecommunication and train control system with advanced features such as automatic train operation, automatic train protection, automatic train supervision and integration with platform screen doors. The project can serve as a demonstration for developing high capacity rapid urban transit corridors in other urban areas of India. The total project cost is estimated at $3,749 million, which will be financed by the NDB worth $500 million, Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank worth $500 million, Asian Development Bank worth $1,049 million, Japan Fund for Poverty Reduction worth $3 million, and government and other sources worth $1,707 million. The $500 million loan from the NDB has a tenor of 25 years with an eight-year grace period.