COVER STORY
Regional Rapid Transit System (RRTS) Transforming regional mobility at higher speeds in India
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o provide a new, dedicated, semi high speed, high capacity, comfortable and state -of-theart passenger services to the people by connecting regional nodes with India’s National Capital Region (NCR), the NITI Aayog (formerly known as Planning Commission) had set up a Task Force under the chairmanship of Secretary, Ministry of Housing & Urban Affairs (MoHUA) in 2005. The Task Force identified 8 RRTS corridors and prioritised three corridors namely DelhiMeerut, Delhi-Panipat and Delhi- Alwar for implementation. In Mar 2010, National Capital Region Planning Board (NCRPB) appointed
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M/s. Delhi Integrated Multi-Modal Transit System (DIMMTS) for DelhiMeerut and Delhi-Panipat and M/s. Urban Mass Transit Company Limited (UMTC) for Delhi-Alwar to carry out feasibility study and prepare the Detailed Project Report (DPR) for the proposed RRTS corridors. To implement the proposed RRTS projects, the Government of India under Ministry of Housing & Urban Affairs (MoHUA) has formed the National Capital Region Transport Corporation (NCRTC) - a special purpose vehicle in collaboration with participating state governments viz. Delhi, Uttar Pradesh, Haryana and Rajasthan. In its first phase, it will build a 383-km long network of high-frequency commuter rail lines to connect Delhi with cities and urban centres in adjoining states to support balanced and sustainable urban development through
better connectivity and access. On 8th March 2019, the Prime Minister of India Narendra Modi laid the Foundation Stone of India’s first Regional Rapid Transit System (RRTS) between Delhi and Meerut via Ghaziabad. The construction work on this corridor is in full swing. The 17-km priority section of the corridor is targeted to be commissioned by 2023 and the entire 82-km corridor will be opened for public by 2025. In addition to Delhi-Ghaziabad-Meerut, under RRTS Phase-1, NCRTC would also provide world class regional commuter transit services on the DelhiGurugram-SNB-Alwar (198 km) and Delhi-Panipat (103 km) corridors in future. All the three prioritized corridors of RRTS, converging at Sarai Kale Khan RRTS station, will be interoperable,
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