Delhi-Meerut RRTS Project: Chinese firm to build stretch of India’s first Regional Rapid Rail Transit corridor

Delhi-Meerut RRTS Project: Chinese company to build RRTS stretch! Six months after a controversy erupted over the foreign firm emerging as the lowest bidder for the contract, worth over Rs 1,000 crore, a construction major from China has been awarded the contract to develop a 5.6 km long underground stretch of the upcoming Delhi-Meerut Regional Rapid Transit System (RRTS) project. According to an IE report, the underground stretch between New Ashok Nagar and Sahibabad will be constructed by China’s Shanghai Tunnel Engineering Company after it trounced Indian civil construction majors last year in the month of June when the financial bids were opened.

According to the National Capital Region Transport Corporation (NCRTC), which is executing the first RRTS project of the country, the contract was awarded to Shanghai Tunnel Engineering Company following set procedure as well as guidelines applicable on an Asian Development Bank-funded project. An NCRTC spokesman was quoted in the report saying for bids that are funded by multilateral agencies, approvals have to be taken at various levels. The spokesman further said this bid was also awarded to the Chinese company following set procedure and guidelines. As of last month, all contracts are functional. On the 82-km-long Delhi-Ghaziabad-Meerut RRTS corridor, the construction is in full swing to commission the project in time, he added.

According to the officials quoted in the report, the RRTS corridor project is being funded by the Asian Development Bank. While procurement is governed by guidelines of the bank and the government. The Delhi-Meerut RRTS is likely to become operational in 2023. The corridor would connect regional nodes in the National Capital Region (NCR) and shorten the Delhi-Meerut transit from the current 3 to 4 hours taken by road to less than 60 minutes. Besides, the RRTS project is also expected to reduce congestion and pollution.