A high-level delegation comprising the Board of Directors of the Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank (AIIB) visited the first RRTS corridor, connecting Delhi, Ghaziabad, and Meerut, on Monday as part of their five-day visit to the country. India is a founder member and has the largest financing portfolio of about USD 10.8 billion.

The delegation was accompanied by officials from Department of Economic Affairs (DEA), Ministry of Finance, as well as senior officials of NCRTC, during the visit.

Shalabh Goel, Managing Director of NCRTC, extended a warm welcome to them at the corporate office of NCRTC, Gatishakti Bhawan. A detailed presentation was given to the delegation covering the project overview and various innovative initiatives taken by NCRTC, challenges overcome in the implementation of the project and so on.

The delegation took a round trip on the Namo Bharat train from Sahibabad to Duhai RRTS station, where they experienced the commuter-centric features of the Namo Bharat trains. They expressed their appreciation for the detailed focus on the comfort and diverse needs of commuters.

They particularly noticed the presence of women in various roles such as train operators, station control officers and so on and commended the women-led development of the organisation.

The visit also included a demonstration of several groundbreaking technologies being adopted for this first-of-its-kind project in India. The members of the delegation complimented the NCRTC team on the adoption of these innovative practices, including the successful implementation of the latest technologies, such as ETCS-2 signalling over an LTE backbone for this transformative mobility solution.

The delegates were keen to learn about the initiatives taken by the NCRTC team to share the knowledge and experience gained during the implementation of this project with industry peers both within India and abroad. They also expressed interest in the various stakeholder-engagement programs organized by NCRTC.

AIIB is one of the primary financial partners for the Delhi-Ghaziabad-Meerut RRTS corridor, having extended a loan of USD 500 million through the Asian Development Bank (ADB).