Corridor to cost Rs.21,902 crore, likely to be operational by 2024

The long awaited Delhi-Ghaziabad-Meerut Rapid Rail Transit System (RRTS) corridor is finally on track. Expected to start operations by 2024, the corridor would reduce travel time between the capital and Meerut to about an hour.

The board of National Capital Region Transport Corporation (NCRTC), which has the mandate of building the corridor, approved the Rs.21,902 crore project on Tuesday. State-of-the-art trains running at a speed of 160 kmph between Delhi and Meerut, 92 km apart, would reduce the travel time by at least 48 minutes.

Sources in the Urban Development Ministry said the RRTS corridor project was first conceived more than 10 years ago. Delhi-Meerut RRTS corridor was one of such corridors proposed in 2005 by the National Capital Region Planning Board (NCRPB) under a ‘Functional Plan on Transport for NCR-2032’ to connect various important towns of the National Capital Region with high-speed rail-based commuter transit system.

Transit hub

The corridor would start from Sarai Kale Khan terminus station, which would become a transit hub with an existing bus terminal and the Hazrat Nizamuddin railway station nearby. The corridor would pass through densely populated areas of Delhi, Ghaziabad and Meerut, terminating at Modipuram.

Of the total 92.05-km-long corridor, 60.354 km is elevated viaduct, 30.245 km is underground and 1.451 km will be at grade for connections to two depots at Duhai and Modipuram. In Delhi and Meerut area, the RRTS will be underground, including the crossing of Yamuna river, sources in the Ministry said. There will be a total of 17 stations, including 11 elevated and 6 underground stations.

‘Seamless travel’

The 38.05-km-long Sahibabad-Meerut South section, including Duhai Depot, is expected to become operational by January 2023, the 16.60-km Sarai Kale Khan-Sahibabad in January 2024 and the remaining 37.40-km Meerut South- Modipuram in July 2024.

“The board (chaired by Secretary, Urban Development, Rajiv Gauba) approved inter-operability of RRTS among the three corridors: Delhi-Meerut, Delhi-Panipat and Delhi-Alwar - to enable seamless travel to these four destinations besides reduction of costs through economies of scale in procurement of equipment and coaches,” the official said.

“The board also decided in favour of ensuring multi-modal integration at Sarai Kale Khan, Anand Vihar, ISBT (Kashmere Gate) and Aero City in Delhi to enable easy transition from one mode of transit to the other,” he said.

New alignments

“The NCRTC Board has also decided to take up with the Road Transport Ministry the realignment of Delhi-Sonepat-Panipat and Delhi-Rewari-Alwar RRTC corridors to run them along NH-1 and NH-8 respectively,” the official said.

“This has been done keeping in view that the earlier alignments were away from highly inhabited areas besides passing through agricultural lands involving land acquisition costs, demolition, cutting of of trees etc.,” he said.