RRTS: Connecting India’s National Capital Region with World class Rapid Rails

insulation panels for pantographs etc. All cars are fitted with active suspension system to minimize lateral vibrations due to car body swaying. Seats are ergonomically designed and have ample leg space for passenger comfort.

Additionally, trains are provide with features such as LED lighting, overhead baggage racks, reclining seats in all cars and seat leg rests operating in conjunction with seat reclining & reading lamps in business and first class cars.

Passengers will be able to talk with train crew by pushing a button in case of any emergency. Cars will have braille enabled information signage in the vestibule area, toilets, and other required places. One car will be provided with multipurpose room with folding bed, mirror etc. for sick persons or child feeding women and so on.

Safety First

There will be cameras on front and rear ends of the passenger cabins and on both sides of vestibule that will record any suspicious activity onboard. The train will be fitted with most advanced crash avoidance system, automatic brake application in case ofover speeding etc.

It will be equipped with earthquake detection system that will enable automatic power shutdown when primary waves emerging from an earthquake epicentre is sensed. It will be fitted with a network of sensors monitoring rail track temperature, rain monitoring and anemometers for wind monitoring.

Driving unit of bullet train, equipped with a number of display units, communication equipment and other tools, will help driver in taking prompt decisions.

Social Initiatives

NHSRCL provided fully-equipped modern ambulance cum mobile health unit in the tribal areas of DahanuTalasari Talukas of Palghar District. In coming days, skill development programme will be undertaken to ensure that the youth in tribal areas get maximum opportunities ofemployment. NHSRCL in association with Rural Development and Self Employment Training Institute (RUDSET), started Future Entrepreneur Training Programme for Project Affected Families.

Environment-friendly Travel

HSR is efficient, eco-friendly, creates less noise and air pollution and uses less land for building similar passenger capacity infrastructure as compared to other transports. As the train will pass through wildlife areas and coastal regions, and also cross areas classified as forest, NHSRCL is making sure that even during construction stage of Mumbai-Ahmedabad High Speed Rail, there is minimal damage to the environment. All efforts such as sound barriers are planned so that wild life is not disturbed because of the corridor and the construction activity. There will be no disturbance to fish and other animals as complete corridor after undersea tunnel is on elevated viaducts. Without changing the location of Thane station, design of station was modified and NHSRCL has saved around 21000 mangroves.

Sabarmati

Ahmedabad

Anand

Vadodara

Bharuch

Surat

Billimora

Vapi

Boisar

Virar

Further, at the construction sites NHSRCL is using ‘Tree Spade Technology’ which ensures that the uprooted tree is taken to a new plantation site and replanted. Hence, NHSRCL is ensuring there is minimum effect to the environment. Make In India As per the agreement between India and Japan, the MAHSR Project has “Make in India (MII)” & “Transfer of Technology” objectives which are envisaged to be met through the following: manufacturing and construction practices. Modernisation of Indian Railways, the third largest railway network in the world, is essential to attain goals of national progress. Introduction of HSR is a significant step in this endeavor. Bullet trains would provide big boost to Indian Railways with advanced safety, technology transfer, skill development and huge influx ofresources. Thane Bandra

• Joint Venture between Indian and Japanese firms manufacturing in India • Equity participation by Japanese firms in Indian firms manufacturing in India • Japanese firms manufacturing in India TOT to Indian firms manufacturing in India While Japanese firms will have access to opportunities in the big and growing Indian Railways, Metro Railways other than HSR projects, India stands to gain by assimilation of better technology, A virtual game changer, HSR is all set to help provide passengers with safe, reliable, and comfortable travel experience matching global standards. The project apart from being a technological benefits. These include saving in travel time, vehicle operation cost, reduced Co2 emissions, comparatively less land required than a 6- lane highway for same passenger capacity, enhanced safety, and job creation because of higher economic activity and faster connectivity. ***

Metro is a green mobility option and I would like to invite people to be a part of the sustainable development of the city and adopt this public transit system. - Kumar Keshav MD, UPMRCL

In a recent conversation with Urban Transport News team, Mr. Kumar Keshav, Managing Director, Uttar Pradesh Metro Rail Corporation Limited (formerly known as Lucknow Metro Rail Corporation) has shared his insights on recent development of various metro rail projects being implemented in Uttar Pradesh state under his leadership. Here are edited excerpts:-

First, congratulations on bagging award in “Best Mass Transit System” category at 12 th Urban Mobility India Conference from Ministry of Housing & Urban Affairs, Govt. of India. Kindly tell our readers about some commuterfriendly initiatives that made “Lucknow Metro” the Best Mass TransitSystem in India.

Thanks You, It was a great moment for us. Our efforts and works have been recognised and appreciated by the GoI. I congratulate my UPMRC team for this wonderful achievement. As far as commuters and their convenience are concerned, we frequently get their feedback, analyse their needs and work accordingly to provide them ensure a great travel experience.

We have world-class stations consisting of commuter-friendly features such as free Wi-Fi, lift, escalators, and automatic fare collection machines. Coaches of the train are also equipped with convenient features. Low noise inside the train, intercar passage, LED lighting, and spaces for baby prams are some other prominent features. We have given special attention to wheelchair-bound passengers through wide passenger doors. Passengers’ safety and security is a great concern for us and we have special arrangements to ensure that.

Kindly tell our readers about the role of Uttar Pradesh Metro Rail Corporation (UPMRC) and the main purpose behind renaming LMRC.

UPMRC will execute various metro projects in all the cities of UP. The main purpose behind the renaming of the LMRC is to constitute a Single Special Purpose Vehicle (SPV) in place of cityspecific body. As per the directive of the Ministry of Housing & Urban Affairs (MoHUA), GoI, the GoUP approved the reconstitution of Lucknow Metro Rail Corporation Limited (LMRC) into a Single SPV named Uttar Pradesh Metro Rail Corporation Limited (UPMRC) for implementation of Metro Rail projects in various important cities of the state. The single SPV is constituted for better management and cost control purpose.

This will help in standardization of various technical aspects. This will also help in the reduction of the cost of administration as well as duplicity of work.

Kindly highlight recent development in Kanpur, Agra and Meerut metro projects.

Kanpur Metro Project: Tender for civil works of the priority section from IIT Kanpur to Moti Jheel has been awarded and Work commenced on 15.11.2019 in presence of Shri Yogi Adityanath, Hon’ble Chief Minister, UP and Ministers of Housing & Urban Planning, GoI. Tender for civil works in priority section awarded. Tender for construction of Depot of corridor-1 awarded on 18.11.2019 and now work has been started. Combined tender for procurement of Rolling Stock and Signaling for Metro floated on 06.12.2019.

Best Urban Mass Transit project award given to Uttar Pradesh Metro Rail Corporation by Ministry of Housing & Urban Affair, Government of India during 12th Urban Mobility India Conference 2019 in Lucknow, India.

Agra Metro Project: Tender for Detailed Design Consultants (DDC) has been awarded on 22 nd October 2019 and the land acquisition is under process. Priority Corridor of approx. 06 Km length from Taj East Gate to Jama Masjid has also been selected which will have 03 elevated and 03 underground stations.

Meerut Metro: DPR approved by GoUP for implementation on Equity Sharing Model and submitted to Ministry of Housing & Urban Affairs, GoI for approval on 24.01.2018.

What is the current status of proposed metro rail projects in other cities like Gorakhpur, Prayagraj and Varanasi?

The DPR of these projects are under process.

When will the work on Charbagh Railway Station –Vasant Kunj corridor start?

We have submitted the revised DPR of Lucknow Metro (East-West corridor) to the government of Uttar Pradesh and it is yet to be approved. The 11.098 km long East-West Corridor will connect from Charbagh to Vasantkunj. The corridor will have 12 stations - Charbagh, Gautam Buddha Marg, Aminabad, Pandey Ganj, Lucknow City Railway Station, Medical Chauraha, Nawajganj, Thakurganj, Balaganj, Sarfarazganj, Musabagh and Vasantkunj. How are you planning the integration of present operational as well as future metro corridors of Lucknow Metro with other modes of public transport like Indian Railways, Bus, airport etc? also helps management to know the opinion and suggestions of common people which ultimately helps us upgrade and revisit our plan and system. At the same time, people become aware of the development in their cities with all the details. These platforms help establish realtime communication in this age of information.

Last mile connectivity is one of the top priorities and in this direction we have been working with state authorities. We have signed MoU with Urban Mass Transit Company (UMTC) and UBER Company to meet the demand from Metro commuters for feeder services across the city. LMRC has also planned to hire E-rickshaws as feeder services because of their benefits to the environment. We have also been providing parking facilities at most of the stations in order to provide people with park and ride facility. Any other thing you want to share with our readers. We are in the journey to provide a smooth mobility option within the cities. Many projects are running simultaneously and we are planning this for other cities as well. Metro is a green mobility option and I would like to invite people to be a part of the sustainable development of the city and adopt this public transit system. ***

What are your views on the contents we cover in Urban Transport News Publications i.e. online news portal and bi-monthly magazine?

It’s a welcome step to provide specialized news through magazines and online portals. It helps authorized bodies to convey messages and communicate with stakeholders and the common man. It

RRTS: Connecting India’s National Capital Region with world-class rapid trains

Vinay Kumar Singh Managing Director NCRTC

Population growth in India has led to cities that are buckling under the weight of demand for services. To avoid the overpopulation, many families are moving outside of the cities, but from there, another problem arises: how do they then move around? Shri Vinay Kumar Singh, Managing Director of National Capital Region Transport Corporation (NCRTC), explains how this rapid urbanisation has forced India to rejuvenate its public transport offering to ensure that these people are just as provided for as those within the cities' central business districts. rbanisation is a global phenomenon and India is no exception to this population shift, primarily due to the evident disparity in rural-urban opportunities. The growing aspirations of the country’s citizens force around 25-30 people to migrate1 every minute from rural areas to cities in search ofbetter opportunities. U

The national census in 2011 counted 139 million people as domestic migrants in the country between 2001 and 2011. The future is no less challenging for India, with the national economic survey of 2017-18 predicting that about 40 per cent of India’s population will be living in cities by 2030. This is further acknowledged by the United Nations in its World Cities report, which has estimated that urbanisation levels in India are expected to gradually increase from the current 32 per cent to 50 per cent in 2050.

This influx of domestic migrants is predominantly to Indian megacities like New Delhi, Mumbai, Bengaluru and Hyderabad, primarily because they are the sectoral hubs driving the economy’s meteoric growth. This trend of domestic migration, particularly in New Delhi, has led to uncontrolled urban sprawl, posing serious challenges for infrastructure, environment and citizens’ quality of life, constrainingeconomic growth.

Planned growth of existing economic hubs and the development of new economic epicenters will be critical to sustainable polycentric urban development for realising the prime minister’s vision to make India a $5 trillion economy by 2025.

National Capital Region (NCR) The National Capital Region (NCR) of India encompasses several districts adjoining New Delhi in the States ofHaryana, Uttar Pradesh and Rajasthan, with New Delhi at its centre. NCR is one of the largest urban agglomerations in the world, formed in 1985 in line with the internationally adopted approach of regional planning to decongest New Delhi

Until now, the NCR has undergone lopsided development with a few satellite cities of New Delhi emerging as business hubs, while other sub-regions continue to struggle. This unicentric development has prevented the region from realising its true economic potential. A report by Oxford Economics has projected NCR’s GDP to hit $1 trillion by 2030.

With an average 33 per cent decadal growth, the population of NCR is expected to reach approximately 64 million by the year 2021, while New Delhi is set to overtake Tokyo to become the world’s most populous city by 20286. The lack of planning and uncontrolled urbanisation in NCR in general, and Delhi in particular, has resulted in serious issues of over-stressed civic amenities, severe congestion, a high number of road accidents and hazardous pollution levels.

Regional mobility in NCR

Despite the augmentation of new roads, flyovers and expressways, traffic congestions has continued to plague the NCR unabated. Plans for transport arteries that create enhanced regional mobility serving the aspirations of NCR have become critically important for sustainable development.

Worldwide in extended urban agglomerations around cities like Seoul, Paris and Tokyo, besides the dense public transit (e.g. BRT, metros and buses) network within urban boundaries, the importance of regional transit planning was realised early on. Accordingly, regional rails have been planned to serve as the main transport backbone of the region with urban public transit modes serving as feeders. To address existing issues and meet organically growing demand, as well as the mobility requirements of the future to unlock the NCR’s economic development potential, the need to develop the Regional Rapid Transit System (RRTS) was identified.

The National Capital Region Planning Board, a statutory body under the Government of India, in its Functional Plan on Transport for NCR-2032 identified eight corridors for constructing

high speed RRTS in the NCR by 2032. Out of these, three corridors were strategically prioritised for implementation in Phase 1. The responsibility of designing, developing, RRTS has been assigned to the National Capital Region Transport Corporation (NCRTC), a joint venture with the Indian government and the state governments of Delhi, Haryana, Rajasthan and Uttar Pradesh. The RRTS will connect cities, towns and urban centres across the region, largely serving the needs of daily commuters travelling within the larger urban agglomeration. RRTS is a high-speed, high-frequency rail-based system with a design speed of 180 kmph and an average speed of100 kmph. Once operational, the RRTS will be the NCR’s fastest, most comfortable, most reliable and safest mode of transport. Efficient and sustainable mobility will enable polycentric development in the NCR. RRTS is first of its kind project in India. The priority corridors of DelhiGhaziabad-Meerut, Delhi-Panipat and Delhi-Gurugram-SNB-Alwar will not only converge at Delhi’s Sarai Kale Khan, but will also be interoperable. Multimodal integration with other modes of transport is central to the project, with the intent of reducing travel bottlenecks for commuters adopting public transport. Integrated modes include airports, urban metro stations, Indian national railway stations and inter-state bus terminus. Equipped with state-of the art technology, best-in-class command and control systems, level two ETCS signalling, and ballastless tracks, the RRTS will not only revolutionise public transport in the region but will set a benchmark for similar future projects in India. The journeyso far RRTS corridor to be implemented by the NCRTC. The prime minister of India laid the foundation stone of the corridor on 8 March 2019. Civil construction work on the first 17 km of corridor is already in progress, slated to be commissioned by March 2023. Tenders for the rest of the packages for civil construction will be called shortly and the full corridor is set to be operational by 2025. The Asian Development Bank (ADB) is funding around 60 percent of the cost ofthe corridor. The other two priority corridors are in the advanced stages of government approval. Pre-construction activities like geotechnical investigations, detailed designing and surveys are in progress on the Delhi-Gurugram-SNB-Alwar corridor. Multilateral lending agencies like the Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank (AIIB), Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA) and World Bank, including ADB, have shown keen

With a team of its own experts, NCRTC has collaborated with several leading global organisations such as M/s Ayesa Ingenieria, M/s ADIF and M/s INECO of Spain, M/S Italferr of Italy, and M/s Systa and M/s EGIS Rail of France –in various technical areas related to conceptualisation, design, planning and integration for efficient implementation ofthe project.

Benefits of RRTS

The prime minister’s vision of ‘New India’ envisages an equitable and prosperous nation supported by a friendly ecosystem for economic growth. In New India, a sound mobility infrastructure network will define the transformation of cities in a more planned, equitable and sustainable manner.

RRTS, with the capacity to move 70,000- 80,000 passengers per hour per direction, with minimal footprint on the land, will act as the transport backbone of the NCR. This next-generation infrastructure will not only be effective in curbing ills like urban sprawl, air pollution, road congestion and accidents, but will also be able to cater to the growing mobility demands of New India for the next 50-60 years. RRTS will be immensely advantageous in controlling the urban sprawl of New Delhi as well as in decongesting the city. Along with a fast, reliable and safe transit system, the regional rapid rail will also offer a range of other socio –economic benefits to the NCR.

The RRTS will result in substantial time savings by cutting the current travel time for a 100km journey of around three to four hours by about a third on its routes. Around two million daily commuters are likely to benefit from the operations of Phase I corridors. The Delhi-GhaziabadREGIONAL RAIL (RRTS) 

The population in cities is increasing rapidly. Therefore, public transport and intercity linkages are a must. If you make a rapid transit system, there would be many people who would prefer living in Meerut and NCR and come to Delhi for work. I am confident that RRTS project would be completed on time and will improve the ease of living of people living in Meerut and nearby areas along with improving the region’s economic situation. --- Hardeep Singh Puri MoS for Housing & Urban Affairs (MoHUA), Govt. of India - at the foundation stone laying ceremony of Delhi-Meerut RRTS corridor on March 8, 2019. “

Meerut corridor alone is expected to remove around 100,000 vehicles from the roads, resulting in less pollution, relief in road congestion and a significant reduction in road accident cases.

The RRTS will also enable industries and businesses to have better access to a workforce with varied skillsets. The highspeed regional rapid transit system will bring people closer to opportunities; construction of the Phase 1 corridors alone is expected to create around 21,000 direct jobs. The adoption of the government's ‘Make in India’ policy will also help in generating direct and indirect employment.

An easy, safe and faster commute by RRTS would improve access to healthcare, education and economic opportunities, leading to improved quality of life and delivering progress through speed. About the Author

Mr. Vinay Kumar Singh is the first regular Managing Director of the National Capital Region Transport Corporation (NCRTC) –a joint partnership corporation of the Government of India and the participating states of Uttar Pradesh, Haryana, Rajasthan and Delhi. NCRTC is mandated to implement India’s first Regional Rapid Transit System in the National Capital Region. Prior to this, he served as the first CEO of High Speed Rail Corporation, a subsidiary of Rail Vikas Nigam Ltd. (an Indian Railways unit). He has extensively studied global high-speed rail systems such as the systems of Spain, France and Japan. The feasibility study ofIndia’s first High Speed Rail corridor between Mumbai and Ahmadabad was finalised under his guidance.