Ghaziabad set to see housing, commercial boom, courtesy RRTS

The 17km priority section in Ghaziabad, which is set to be inaugurated on Friday, is part of the 82km RRTS network being developed to connect the cities of Delhi, Ghaziabad and Meerut

The city of Ghaziabad, on Friday, will become the country’s first city to get an operational Regional Rapid Transit System (RRTS) corridor of 17 kilometres, from Sahibabad to Duhai Depot, a development that is very likely to boost housing and commercial activities in the city as RRTS stations have been declared mixed land use zones along with an influence zone of 1.5km radius.

The GDA is now in its final phases to get the Master Plan 2031 approved and the influence zones and two special development areas (SDAs) have already been incorporated in the draft plan. (Sakib Ali/HT Photo)

The Ghaziabad Development Authority (GDA) said these influence zones will be developed on the lines of transit-oriented development (TOD) zones of the Metro corridor and have been defined as per the Uttar Pradesh government’s new TOD policy, which was rolled out in 2022.

The 17km priority section in Ghaziabad, which is set to be inaugurated on Friday, is part of the 82km RRTS network being developed to connect the cities of Delhi, Ghaziabad and Meerut.

The GDA is now in its final phases to get the Master Plan 2031 approved and the influence zones and two special development areas (SDAs) have already been incorporated in the draft plan.

The two SDAs comprise 510.56 hectares in Guldhar and 549.5 hectares in Duhai.

The town planning experts said RRTS will fuel a major housing and commercial expansion in areas from Raj Nagar Extension to Muradnagar, between Muradnagar and Modinagar and also from Modinagar to outskirts of Meerut near Partapur.

All these areas are in the vicinity of RRTS stations which have been declared as influence zones along with the two SDAs and these have provision for mixed land use along with higher floor area ratio (FAR) for major expansions.

The officials of GDA said the influence zones will provide a FAR of four to five while in a non-TOD zones, such high FAR is not available as per existing by-laws.

The Ghaziabad city has eight RRTS stations, at Sahibabad, Ghaziabad, Guldhar, Duhai, Duhai Depot, Muradnagar, Modinagar (North) and Modinagar (South). Stations up to Duhai depot are part of the priority corridor and are already ready.

Besides the two SDAs, the GDA in their draft Master Plan 2031 has also earmarked 5,601.11 hectares as TOD zones around seven RRTS stations.

The Duhai Depot will soon be officially declared as the eighth RRTS station in Ghaziabad and will further have provisions of mixed land use in its 1.5km influence zone.

“The Duhai Depot has been proposed as a proper RRTS station. For all the eight stations in Ghaziabad, the NCRTC is also preparing the zonal plan. These will be part of draft Master Plan 2031 which is likely to be approved next month. To ensure rapid development, we have already declared influence zone areas as mixed land use and have also asked stakeholders to give us project plans,”said Rajesh Kumar Singh, secretary,GDA.

“The arrival of RRTS will surely expand housing and commercial activities along the RRTS corridor and residents from cities such as Delhi, Gurugram etc, can think of reside in Ghaziabad and taking a Namo Bharat train (earlier called RapidX train) to work daily,” he said.

“The real benefits of the RRTS will arrive in once the network expands to at least Anand Vihar in Delhi and Meerut (North). The areas under the influence zones will see major housing and commercial constructions due to higher FAR available. However, to get the required benefits, agencies such as the GDA should start on-ground work for also connecting these areas with well planned roads,” said Aheesh Shivpuri, former chief architect and town planner, GDA.

“The Namo Bharat trains will ease travelling between cities and people will prefer the influence zone areas for residential and commercial purposes. However, the authorities must ensure that there are no unauthorised construction and planned development takes shape in the coming years,” Shivpuri added.

Rajendra Tyagi, five-time councillor, said housing and commercial expansion is already saturated in city limits.

“The areas around the RRTS network will see major expansion. When neighbouring Noida was getting developed, people in Delhi sold their properties and settled in less expensive areas of Noida back then. After selling their property, they repaid their housing loans and also started new businesses with the leftover funds. Same scenario can be expected in Ghaziabad,” Tyagi said.