UTTAR PRADESH, INDIA (Metro Rail News): National Capital Region Transport Corporation (NCRTC) showcases India’s first Regional Rapid Transit System (RRTS) project at the All-India Mayor’s Conference being held in Varanasi. 

Hon’ble Chief Minister of Uttar Pradesh Shri. Yogi Adityanath along with Hon’ble Minister of MoHUA, Shri Hardeep Singh Puri and other senior dignitaries visited the RRTS exhibition stall.  

By providing high-speed regional rail connectivity between key urban nodes of Western Uttar Pradesh and the national capital, RRTS will enable polycentric & sustainable development in the region, and bring healthcare, employment, & educational facilities closer to the people. 

The RRTS infrastructure will also be used to operate local transit services (Meerut Metro) over 21 km with 13 stops in Meerut, thereby presenting the residents of Meerut with their first metro services. 

This amalgamation of RRTS and Meerut metro services through various value addition initiatives saved a huge sum of Rs. 6500 crore and ensured state-of-the-art infrastructure and operations for intracity metro services in Meerut.   

The semi-high speed rail corridor connecting Ghaziabad and Meerut with Delhi is one of the three priority corridors planned under Phase-I of the RRTS project and is being developed at an estimated cost of Rs 30,724 crore. 

The 82 km long first RRTS corridor of the country will offer a faster, safer, more reliable and energy-efficient mobility solution to improve the quality of life for people in NCR.  

With a design speed of 180 kmph and an average speed of 100 Kmph, RRTS is aimed at bringing people and places closer in the National Capital Region (NCR). It will bring down travel time to less than 60 minutes that normally consume 3-4 hours presently.  

People living in Western Uttar Pradesh will get its benefits and approximately 8 lakh commuters will be able to travel daily. 

Also, RRTS will enable the development of new economic and industrial hubs along with regional nodes in Ghaziabad, Muradnagar, Modi Nagar and Meerut.  

Keeping the commuter convenience in mind, RRTS trains will have premium and standard coaches. One coach in every train will be reserved for women passengers. The coaches will have a 2×2 transverse seating arrangement, optimized aisle width with grab handles and rails for a comfortable journey for standing passengers, overhead luggage rack, mobile/laptop charging sockets, adequate legroom and onboard Wi-Fi.  

At the conference, NCRTC also showcased the Multi-Modal Integration (MMI) of RRTS stations. Wherever possible, RRTS stations would be integrated with various modes of transport like; Airport, Indian Railway Stations, Bus Depots and Metro train stations. With seamless integration between different modes of transport, commuters will be encouraged to switch to use of public transport. 

A total of 68 km (85% approx.) of the corridor is under development in Meerut and Ghaziabad, Western UP. The high-speed rail project is part of Uttar Pradesh’s micro-scale development plan, entailing rapid economic development of hyper-localized areas.  

Many world-class latest technologies are being used in the construction and operations of the country’s first RRTS corridor and Meerut Metro.  

Apart from this, NCRTC has taken several initiatives under the ‘Make in India’ guidelines, which is also being showcased in the All-India Mayor’s Conference. 

NCRTC team is working day and night at the sites with 18 launching gantries (तारिणी) in operation for the elevated section in the corridor. More than 14,000 workers and 1100 engineers are working tirelessly on the 82 km long RRTS corridor wherein more than 1200 piers of the elevated section have been erected, more than 50 km of foundation work and approximately 14 km of viaduct have been completed, most of which is located in the priority section.  

So far, 3.00 lakh metric tonnes of cement and 1.50 lakh metric tonnes of steel have been consumed in the construction work. In Ghaziabad and Meerut, the construction work is at a fast pace in both elevated and underground sections.  

The 17 km long priority section is targeted to be commissioned by 2023 and the entire corridor by 2025.