Delhi to Meerut in 37 minutes, RRTS trial runs in October

The National Capital Region Transport Corporation (NCRTC) will start a trial run on the 17km-long priority corridor of the Delhi-Meerut Regional Rapid Transit System (RRTS) between Sahibabad and Duhai in October this year, said NCRTC MD Vinay Kumar Singh, adding that once the entire corridor is complete, trains will be able to cover the distance between Delhi and Meerut in 37 minutes

The National Capital Region Transport Corporation (NCRTC) will start a trial run on the 17km-long priority corridor of the Delhi-Meerut Regional Rapid Transit System (RRTS) between Sahibabad and Duhai in October this year, said NCRTC MD Vinay Kumar Singh, adding that once the entire corridor is complete, trains will be able to cover the distance between Delhi and Meerut in 37 minutes.

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Singh said that the priority corridor will be operational by March 2023, while the entire 82km-long corridor will be ready by June 2025. The NCRTC plans to start operating trains at a 10-minute frequency to cover the distance between the Sahibabad and Duhai in 55 minutes.

“We will be starting the trial run in October. Our infrastructure is designed to operate trains at a speed of 180km/hour. While we will run trials at 180km/hour, the trains will actually operate at a speed of 160km/hour.”

Singh said the transit system is designed to operate trains without a halt as well as trains with a limited number of halts along with regular trains, and this will further reduce travel time. “Without any halts, we can cover the distance between Delhi and Meerut in 37 minutes. Depending on the demand, we can operate trains without halts or those with a limited number of halts. The system is designed for flexibility,” Singh said.

Explaining the system, Singh said that while all trains will run on the same track, they have catered for trains to bypass other trains in certain areas. “This facility has been created at some stations such as Ghaziabad. Operating trains with a limited number of halts will further reduce the travel time between the two cities,” he said.

With two other corridors (Delhi-SNB-Alwar and Delhi-Panipat) in the pipeline, Singh said that the demand or ridership will increase with the expansion of the network.

He said that the second 107km-long RRTS corridor between Delhi-Gurugram-SNB (Shahjahanpur-Neemrana-Behror) will also have the provision to operate trains with a limited number of halts. “We are planning the corridor such that we can run trains with fewer halts. The plan is to cover the distance of 107km between Delhi and SNB with just 4-5 halts. This will increase the average speed,” said Singh.

He said the operation and maintenance of the Delhi-Meerut corridor have been outsourced to a private concessionaire, DB India, for 12 years. “They will hire train operators, station managers, etc. They will also be responsible for the maintenance of the infrastructure,” he said.

According to NCRTC, once the entire corridor is operational, the daily ridership will be around 800,000. Singh said they are focussing on ensuring multi-modal integration of transport and providing better last-mile connectivity so that more people use public transport.

The NCRTC plans to operate a premium coach on each train for people who are willing to pay more for comfortable travel.

In Delhi, there will be four RRTS stations at Jangpura, Sarai Kale Khan, New Ashok Nagar and Anand Vihar. Singh said the corporation has decided on transit-oriented development on vacant land available in Anand Vihar, Jangpura and Sarai Kale Khan. “At Jangpura, we plan to have housing facilities for sale along with commercial development, while at the other two locations, we will have only commercial development,” said Singh.