For a simple connected graph $G$, let $D(G)$, $Tr(G)$, $D^{L}(G)$ and $D^{Q}(G)$ respectively be the distance matrix, the diagonal matrix of the vertex transmissions, the distance Laplacian matrix and the distance signless Laplacian matrix of a graph $G$. The convex linear combination $D_{\alpha}(G)$ of $Tr(G)$ and $D(G)$ is defined as $D_{\alpha}(G)=\alpha Tr(G)+(1-\alpha)D(G)$, $0\leq \alpha\leq 1$. As $D_{0}(G)=D(G)$, $2D_{\frac{1}{2}}(G)=D^{Q}(G)$, $D_{1}(G)=Tr(G)$, this matrix reduces to merging the distance spectral, signless distance Laplacian spectral theories. In this paper, we study the spectral radius of the generalized distance matrix $D_{\alpha}(G)$ of a graph $G$. We obtain bounds for the generalized distance spectral radius of a bipartite graph in terms of various parameters associated with the structure of the graph and characterize the extremal graphs. For $\alpha=0$, our results improve some previously known bounds.