UP govt allocates Rs 250 crore for Delhi-Meerut rapid rail corridor

The corridor will pass through densely populated areas of Delhi, Sahibabad, Ghaziabad city, Guldhar, Duhai, Muradnagar and Modinagar, and will terminate at Modipuram in Meerut. The corridor is likely to start operation by 2024.

The Uttar Pradesh government on Friday allocated a budget of Rs 250 crore for the Delhi-Ghaziabad-Meerut Rapid Rail Transit System (RRTS), which will considerably reduce travel time between Delhi and Meerut.

The corridor will pass through densely populated areas of Delhi, Sahibabad, Ghaziabad city, Guldhar, Duhai, Muradnagar and Modinagar, and will terminate at Modipuram in Meerut. The corridor is likely to start operation by 2024. (PTI)

The budgetary provision was made by the UP government in its budget presented for the 2018-19 fiscal.

The corridor will pass through densely populated areas of Delhi, Sahibabad, Ghaziabad city, Guldhar, Duhai, Muradnagar and Modinagar, and will terminate at Modipuram in Meerut. The corridor is likely to start operation by 2024.

The journey from Delhi to Meerut through the high speed train system is estimated to be just one hour.

This corridor is part of three corridors — Delhi-Meerut, Delhi-Alwar and Delhi-Panipat — in the first phase of the RRTS, being implemented by the National Capital Region Transport Corporation Limited (NCRTC) in a joint venture of the central government with governments of Haryana, Delhi, Uttar Pradesh and Rajasthan.

In the 2018-19 Union Budget, the central government allocated Rs 659 crore for phase 1 of the RRTS.

“The allocation of Rs 250 crore in the Uttar Pradesh budget for RRTS will boost the ongoing works related to RRTS phase I of NCRTC on Delhi- Meerut corridor. In the Union Budget, the government has allocated a sum of Rs 659 crore to this project,” said Sudhir Sharma, chief public relation officer, NCRTC.

A total of eight corridors under RRTS have been identified under the Integrated Transport Plan 2032 prepared by the National Capital Region Planning Board (NCRPB).

The NCRTC has already created the first field unit in Ghaziabad and posted officers. The pre-construction work has already started on the Delhi-Meerut section and more project offices will be set up at various points.

The Delhi-Ghaziabad-Meerut corridor is planned for multi-modal integration at Sarai Kalen Khan, Anand Vihar and Sahibabad where commuters can interchange for other transport modes like the Metro.

In addition to the the RRTS, the National Highways Authority of India is embarking on widening NH-24 to 14 lanes and also developing a Greenfield expressway from Ghaziabad’s Dasna to improve connectivity with Meerut in western UP.

Apart from the budgetary provision for the RRTS on Friday, the Yogi Adityanath government also allocated Rs 94.26 crore for the Kailash Mansarovar pilgrim centre which is to come up in Indirapuram. The land has already been earmarked for the pilgrim house and foundation stone laid down by CM at Ghaziabad on August 31 last year.