India’s first rapid rail system to boost NCR's economic growth

The National Capital Region’s (NCR) demarcated area of 58,000 sq km, spanning across Delhi, Harayana, Uttar Pradesh and Rajasthan, and comprising a number of IT services and industrial hubs, records the fastest pace of urbanisation and economic growth in the country.

To keep up with the current speed of development, a high-speed rail network, which will connect all four states and the NCR by the year 2032, was recommended in the ‘Functional Plan on Transport for NCR region, 2032’ of the NCR Planning Body (NCRPB), which comes under the Union urban development ministry.

The idea of a Regional Rapid Transit System was first mooted in 2005-06. The work on preparing a detailed project report on this mammoth project was completed in 2011. The same year, an agreement between the Centre on one side and Delhi, Rajasthan, Uttar Pradesh and Harayana on the other, was signed to form a joint-venture executing agency for the project.

In 2013, the Manmohan Singh-led cabinet approved the formation of the implementing agency—NCR Transport Corporation (NCRTRC)—for the rapid railway project. It became the largest rail transport project in India, requiring an investment of Rs 1 lakh crore.

NCRTC started operations from 2016 onwards with an office, headed by an managing director, who would often be IRTES officials from the Indian Railways, and other staff, mostly engineers.

Recently, NCRTC invited tender for constructing the track and railway stations on its first to-be operational route connecting Delhi-Ghaziabad-Meerut, a 92.6-km stretch of the total 300 km, to be covered under phase-1 of the project.

“On completion, the 92.6-km stretch with 26 stations between Delhi and Meerut, would take a travel time of 62 minutes,” said Sudhir Kumar Sharma, group general manager, NCRTC. Currently, travelling the same stretch via national highway-34 takes more than three hours for a commuter.

The other two routes to be covered under phase-1 are Delhi-Gurgaon-Rewari-Alwar (180 km) and Delhi-Sonipat-Panipat (111 km). On completion of this project, the country’s first rapid railway transit system will come into existence.

Rapid transit systems are already present across other national capitals like Crossrail of London, RER of Paris, Cercanias of Madrid, and regional rails of Berlin, Tokyo and Beijing, among others. The electric powered trains would travel at an average speed of 100 kmph (with a maximum speed of 160 kmph) and have an average wait time of less than 5 minutes for commuters.

Once completed, the rapid transit railway system will bring connectivity among all urban nodes of NCR and help in their equitable development, thus, decongesting the highways to and from Delhi, and reducing the pollution and population burden on major urban centres across NCR.

Among other things, the project will initiate a multi-modal transport model for India’s capital region— one which would combine travel by rapid rail, metro rail, bus or road transport, and train. Delhi’s congested entry and exit points are likely to get a makeover with this project, allowing commuters easy, hassle-free access from one mode of transport to the other.

Cost of the rapid railway transit system would be borne proportional to distance of the project on ground and shared between the Union government (Delhi to be hub for all eight route corridors) and the four state governments. For completion of the Delhi-Ghaziabad-Meerut route, the Uttar Pradesh government has already committed Rs 250 crore, while the Centre has allocated Rs 659 crore.

Now, the approvals of allocations for the project from the Delhi government and the Union urban development ministry are awaited.