30 senior officials in race for NCRTC MD

About 30 senior officials in the government have shown interest in becoming Managing Director of the National Capital Region Transport Corporation (NCRTC), the implementing agency for the three corridors of the Regional Rapid Transit System (RRTS) in the NCR zone.
The NCRTC will execute three rapid rail corridors to Panipat, Meerut and Alwar from the capital at an estimated cost of Rs 72,170 cr.
The corridors is expected to reduce considerably the travel time on Delhi-Panipat, Delhi-Meerut and Delhi-Alwar routes.
"There is a requirement for the appointment of the Managing Director of NCRTC to execute three prioritised RRTS corridors and about 30 persons have applied for the job," sources in Urban Development Ministry said.

It is learnt that most of the applicants are railway officials who are working with the public transporter at Joint Secretary level.
Currently, the UD Ministry is in the process of finalising the selection committee to choose the right candidate for the job.

The selection committee will comprise of Urban Development Secretary, Railway Board Member, a senior official from the DoPT and an expert from the field.
Sources said a retired UD Secretary is likely to be selected as the expert on the selection committee.
Once the MD is selected, work on the proposed RRTS corridors is expected to be fast-tracked.

The rapid increase in Delhi's vehicular population underscores the need for a better transportation system and the proposed high-speed connectivity is the right step in that direction, sources said.
According to a senior UD Ministry official, Detailed Project Reports (DPR) of the 111 km-long Delhi-Sonipat-Panipat corridor, 90 km long Delhi-Ghaziabad-Meerut route and 180 km Delhi-Rewari-Alwar rail route are being prepared for final approval. Recently, the Delhi government approved the alignments of the three RRTS corridors.
The speed on the RRTS corridors will be higher than the current Delhi Metro service and the distance separating two stations will also be longer.

As per the plan, the maximum speed of RRTS trains can be upto 150 km per hour and minimum distance between stations will be about 4 to 5 km.
The high-speed connectivity will facilitate seamless travel of people between the capital and suburbs.