Context: Recently, the Asian Development Bank (ADB) and the Government of India signed a $500 million loan to build a modern, high-speed 82-kilometer Delhi-Meerut Regional Rapid Transit System (RRTS) corridor.

• With a design speed of 180 km per hour and high-frequency operations of every 5–10 minutes, the corridor connecting Sarai Kale Khan in Delhi to Modipuram in Meerut in Uttar Pradesh is expected to reduce the journey time to about 1 hour from the present 3–4 hours.

Significance

• It will improve regional connectivity and mobility in India’s national capital region (NCR).
• The first tranche financing will be used for constructing electrified tracks, signaling systems, multimodal hubs and stations with design features that are friendly to elderly, women, children and the disabled.
• It will also support the National Capital Region Transport Corporation (NCRTC) in drafting action plans on Transit-oriented development (TOD), value capture financing (VCF) instruments and public-private partnership (PPP) initiatives, setting up a smart-technology based platform, and formulating a gender-friendly workplace policy.
• Development of this corridor will have a huge demonstration effect and pave the way for a paradigm shift in mobility and the pattern of urban development within the region.
• The project is expected to have a transformational impact on the development trajectory of the national capital region by introducing high-level technologies for RRTS, signaling, and station designs.

Asian Development Bank

• ADB is a regional development bank established in December 1966.
• It is headquartered in Manila, Philippines and aims at reducing poverty in Asia and Pacific through inclusive economic growth, environmentally sustainable growth and regional integration.
• The bank admits the members of the United Nations Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific (UNESCAP) and non-regional developed countries.
• ADB was modelled closely on the World Bank, and has a similar weighted voting system where votes are distributed in proportion with member’s capital subscriptions.
• ADB is an official United Nations Observer and offers both Hard Loans and Soft loans.
• The ADB offers “hard” loans from ordinary capital resources (OCR) on commercial terms, and the Asian Development Fund (ADF) affiliated with the ADB extends “soft” loans from special fund resources with concessional conditions.

Members

• Currently, ADB has 68 members– of which 49 are from within Asia and the Pacific and 19 from outside the region.
• India is the founding member of ADB.

Funding

• ADB raises funds through bond issues on the world’s capital markets.
• ADB also relies on its members’ contributions, retained earnings from its lending operations, and the repayment of loans.
• Japan holds the largest proportions of shares at 15.67%.
• The United States holds 15.56%, China holds 6.47%, India holds 6.36%, and Australia holds 5.81%.

Functions of ADB

• Provides loans and equity investments to its Developing Member Countries (DMCs).
• Provides technical assistance for the planning and execution of development projects and programs and for advisory services.
• Promotes and facilitates investment of public and private capital for development.
• Assists in coordinating development policies and plans of its DMCs.