Delhi-Meerut RRTS Corridor: Delivery Of 100% 'Made In India' High-Speed Trainsets To Commence Soon As Trial Run Begins This Year

With the 17 km priority section of the Delhi-Ghaziabad Meerut RRTS corridor between Sahibabad to Duhai scheduled to be operational by March 2023, National Capital Region Transport Corporation (NCRTC) is gearing up for the launch of trial runs later this year.

The 82 Km long Delhi-Ghaziabad Meerut RRTS corridor, which will be opened for traffic by 2025, comprises 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 senior management team of NCRTC including its managing director Vinay Kumar Singh recently visited the manufacturing plant of RRTS trainsets and propulsion factory, both located in Gujarat.

Under the Make in India guidelines, 100% of trainsets for the country’s first RRTS are being manufactured in India, with over 80% localisation. The trainsets are being manufactured in Alstom’s factory at Savli in Gujarat. This facility manufactures the bogies, car bodies and undertakes train testing.

At the plant, NCRTC team reviewed the progress on the manufacturing of 6-car prototype RRTS Train. All the 6 cars of the first trainset are in different stages of final assembly.

The NCRTC team also visited the propulsion factory at Maneja, where traction/auxiliary converters/inverters were in the process of manufacturing and testing.

The delivery of these semi high-speed first of its kind aerodynamic trainsets, with distributed power, will commence in the coming months.

RRTS Trainset Design

The RRTS trains are designed keeping in mind the high-acceleration and high-deceleration that these trains will need to undergo given the operational speed of 160 kmph and stations at every 5-10 km.

According to NCRTC, RRTS trainsets will be the first of their kind in India with a design speed of 180 kmph. The manufacturing facility at Savli will be delivering a total of 210 cars (40 trainsets) for the first RRTS corridor. This includes 30 trainsets of 6 cars each for operating regional transit services on the Delhi-Ghaziabad-Meerut corridor and 10 trainsets of 3 cars each for local transit services in Meerut.

The first look of the train for India’s first Regional Rapid Transit System (RRTS) was unveiled by NCRTC in September 2020. Inspired by Delhi’s iconic monument, The Lotus Temple, the NCRTC said that the aesthetics of the trainsets will represent a unique amalgamation of sustainability and India’s rich heritage.

RRTS trains will have ergonomically designed 2×2 transverse seating, comfortable standing space, luggage racks, CCTV cameras, laptop/mobile charging facility, dynamic route maps, auto control ambient lighting system, and other amenities.

The air-conditioned RRTS trains will have standard as well as premium class (one coach per train) along with one coach reserved for women passengers.

This line will be the first in India to adopt the European Train Control System (ETCS) hybrid Level 2 signalling system, which is the core signalling and train control component of the European Rail Traffic Management System