Delhi-Ghaziabad Meerut RRTS Corridor: Trial Run Of India's First Rapid Rail Corridor This Year, To Be Operational By Mar 2023

The 17 km priority section of Delhi-Ghaziabad Meerut RRTS corridor between Sahibabad to Duhai is scheduled to be operational by March 2023. The complete corridor will be opened for traffic by 2025.

The 82 Km long Delhi-Ghaziabad Meerut RRTS corridor will have 25 stations, including two depots and one stabling yard. The RRTS corridor will start from Sarai Kale Khan in Delhi and pass through Ghaziabad to reach Modipuram, in Meerut, Uttar Pradesh, bringing people and places closer.

The civil work on the priority section of this corridor, from Sahibabad, Ghaziabad to Duhai Depot in Ghaziabad having a total of five stations is nearing completion.

Construction of the Sahibabad station entered the next stage with the concourse and platform levels of the stations nearing completion. All the piers of this elevated station have already been erected and precast primary and secondary beams, pier arms, cross arms of the station are being installed for the construction of concourse and platform levels.

Sahibabad RRTS station is being envisioned and developed as a three-tier station with ground level, concourse level and platform level. The entrance and exit of the station will be provided on the ground level with universal accessibility. Security, ticketing and other computer-centric facilities will be available at the concourse level.

Sahibabad RRTS station will be equipped with state-of-the-art modern amenities, including passenger information display boards for real-time information and system maps indicating prominent nearby locations. At the concourse level, apart from ticket vending machines (TVMs), firefighting systems, retail outlets, snack vending machines and facilities like washrooms etc are to be provided.

Recently, a special steel span weighing 850 tons and 73 m long has been installed at the mainline railway crossing near Ghaziabad. The work on the other two special steel spans is being done at Ghaziabad RRTS station and near the Eastern Peripheral Expressway (EPE) of Duhai.

The Ghaziabad special span is the biggest special span of the RRTS corridor with 150 meters in length.

Track laying activities along with Overhead Electrical Equipment’s (OHE) installation is going on the elevated viaduct of the priority section. All the 5 RRTS stations - Sahibabad, Ghaziabad, Guldhar, Duhai and Duhai Depot have started taking shape. At present, construction of the concourse and platform level of these stations are being done.

Maintenance depot of the RRTS trains consisting of stabling and inspection lines, rolling stock maintenance yard and other ancillary buildings are being constructed at Duhai.

According to NCRTC, the work of OHE and track laying activities are also progressing well on schedule. Soon the work of signalling and telecom system installation will begin. The depot is preparing for the arrival of the first RRTS train sets from Savli, Gujrat. It is being manufactured indigenously under Make-in-India.

NCRTC maintained that it has completed about 80 per cent of the foundation work of the elevated section. More than 1200 piers have been constructed on a 35 km stretch, out of a total of 82 km. About 17 km viaduct has been constructed, most of which is in the Priority Section.

A senior official involved with the project said "The works on other stations of Delhi such as New Ashok Nagar and Anand Vihar are also progressing rapidly. New Ashok Nagar is an elevated station that will provide interchange facilities with the nearby Metro station. Anand Vihar RRTS station will be a mega transport hub where metro station, railway station and ISBT are being multimodally connected with RRTS station for a seamless commuter experience.

At Anand Vihar, preparations are underway to launch a tunnel boring machine to construct the underground parts of the corridor.

NCRTC proceeded with all construction activities in full compliance with COVID-19 protocols circulated by the government from time to time.

To ensure the speed of construction on the corridor and reduce inconvenience to the nearby residents, NCRTC has strategically used new-age technologies to ensure the smooth flow of traffic and dust mitigation around its sites.

Besides, all types of construction works are being done in barricaded zones. Anti-smog guns and water sprinklers are used as pollution mitigation measures. A dedicated team of experts is regularly monitoring the effectiveness of these measures and intensifying various activities as required.

NCRTC is implementing India’s first regional rail network in National Capital Region (NCR). It is the first of its kind of system in which trains, with a design speed of 180 kmph, will be available every 5 – 10 minutes and cover the distance of around 100 km in an hour.