Finance Ministry, ADB Sign Two Loan Pacts Worth $250 Million

Manila-based Asian Development Bank (ADB) on Monday said it has approved two loans, including funding for the construction of an 82-km Delhi-Meerut Regional Rapid Transit System (RRTS) corridor, of $250 million each.

The other loan of $250 million towards continued support to industrial corridor development to make manufacturing more competitive, strengthen national supply chains and links with regional and global value chains, and create more and better jobs.

Earlier, ADB approved a $1,049 million Multi-tranche Financing Facility (MFF) for the project in 2020 to support the 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, a finance ministry said in a statement.

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

After signing the loan agreement, Juhi Mukherjee, Joint Secretary, Finance Ministry, 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.

In another statement, the loan for the Subprogram 2 will help in the integration of industrial corridors with transport, logistics and urban facilities under the government’s Prime Minister Gati Shakti platform.

This loan builds on the $250 million Subprogram 1 loan approved by ADB in October 2021 that helped strengthen policy frameworks for the Government of India’s National Industrial Corridor Development Programme (NICDP) and develop 11 industrial corridors.

The program is expected to create jobs in the manufacturing sector in industrial nodes, covering areas such as agribusiness, automotives, electronics, food and beverages, heavy machinery, pharmaceuticals, and textiles. It will contribute to the alleviation of poverty in the corridor states.