India's first rapid rail project on track

Uttar Pradesh will soon become country's first state to get Rapid Rail in the first phase of implementation of RRTS. The ambitious rapid rail project will connect Delhi and Meerut in the first corridor.

Ahead of the next elections in 2019, the centre government is in the process of giving green signal to the project soon.

The NCRTC team recently held a presentation under the chairmanship of UP Chief Secretary in Lucknow. The experts from UP Metro Rail Corporation and other officials were also present an occasion. The works related to the first corridor Delhi-Meerut corridor has already begun. For this, road widening from Duhai to Sahibabad in Ghaziabad is currently underway. Also, the tender process for various works is on a fast track.

Meanwhile, the Central Government has taken cognisance of all such projects which can be started in the next few months. Under this, the preparation of Rapid Rail is also to be done this year.

In the NCR, traffic jam is a major problem, which affects the area economically as well as financially. About 46 million people live in 58 thousand square kilometres of NCR. 39 per cent of the NCR population lives in Delhi. The Rapid Rail will save time, environment and money of the commuters.

Rapid Rail network will be linked to all major airports, ISBT and Metro stations.

Kashmiri Gate, Sarai Kale Kha, Anand Vihar, Airport, IFFCO Chowk, Mohan Nagar will be bigger interchange points. In the first phase of Rapid Rail, three corridors will be constructed, the very first at Meerut-Ghaziabad-Delhi Corridor. The next corridor will cover Delhi, Gurgaon, Rewari and Alwar. The third corridor will be covering Delhi, Sonipat and Panipat.

In the second phase, it has been decided to build five corridors. The first corridor will cover Delhi, Faridabad and Palwal. The second corridor will touch Ghaziabad and Khurja. In third, Delhi-Ballabhgarh-Rohtak. In fourth Ghaziabad-Hapur and in the last corridor Delhi, Shahdara and Barot will be covered.

National Capital Region Transport Corporation is a Joint Venture of Government of India and State Governments of Uttar Pradesh, Rajasthan, Haryana and Delhi, is mandated to design, construct, operate and maintain rail based Regional Rapid Transit System (RRTS) in the National Capital Region.

NCRTC is headed by Vinay Kumar Singh. Prior to this appointment, he was working with Rail Vikas Nigam Limited (RVNL), a railway PSU involved in the study of high speed rail corridors.

Singh was the first officer who started construction of Delhi Metro on ground, the first chief executive officer of the High Speed Rail Corporation of India and is now the first Managing Director of NCRTC.

He has been Director on the Board of various SPVs and has been involved in planning and development of public-private partnership PPP projects.