The Board of National Capital Region Transport Corporation has cleared The long awaited Delhi-Ghaziabad-Meerut Rapid Rail Transit Corridor (RRTC). Likely to start functions by 2024, the corridor would minimize travel time between the capital and Meerut to about an hour.
The board approved the Rs.21,902 crore project on Tuesday. State-of-the-art trains running at a speed of 160 kmp/h between Delhi and Meerut, 92 km apart, would minimize the travel time by at the very least 48 minutes.
Urban Development Ministry stated the RRTS corridor project was initially conceived over 10 years ago. Delhi-Meerut RRTS corridor was among such corridors offered in 2005 by the National Capital Region Planning Board (NCRPB) within a ‘Functional Plan on Transport for NCR-2032’ to link various significant towns of the National Capital Region with a high-speed rail-based commuter transit system.
The corridor will start at the Sarai Kale Khan bus terminal and go through Delhi, Ghaziabad and Meerut regions before ending at Modipuram.
In Delhi and Meerut area, the RRTS will be underground, including the crossing of Yamuna river. Of the total 92.05-km-long corridor, 60.354 km is raised viaduct, 30.245 km is underground and 1.451 km will be at grade for connections to two depots at Duhai and Modipuram.
“This corridor will be designed for a maximum speed of 180 km/h with an operating speed of 160 km/h. The coaches will have a 2×2 seating system, like in aircraft. Each train will have one business class coach, besides 11 others,” said a source.
