Sarai Kalen Khan RRTS station will be India's first mega transit hub: Officials

The Sarai Kalen Khan RRTS station will be the country's first mega transit hub as three Regional Rapid Transit System corridors will converge at it, an official said Wednesday.

On the RRTS corridors, trains will run at an average speed of 100 kmph, according to officials, who said the system will provide convenient commuter movement and encourage people to use public transport.

Besides this, the station will also be integrated with the Hazrat Nizamuddin railway station, the Delhi Metro's Sarai Kale Khan station and the Sarai Kale Khan ISBT, the official said.

The National Capital Region Transport Corporation (NCRTC) plans to converge the Delhi-Ghaziabad-Meerut, Delhi-Gurugram-SNB-Alwar and Delhi-Panipat RRTS corridors at the station.

These will make the Sarai Kalen Khan RRTS station India's first mega transit hub, he said.

The NCRTC, which is the implementing agency of the RRTS, will develop several multi-modal integrations along the high-speed corridors, as per a plan.

The official said in view of high-passenger flow at the Sarai Kalen Khan RRTS station, the NCRTC has planned that it will have separate platforms for boarding and de-boarding from trains as the doors will open on both sides.

The "unique system" will help in optimising passenger flow and facilitate convenient commuter movement, he said.

"When commuters are provided seamless integration with different public transport modes, it encourages them to leave their private vehicles behind.

"We have planned the network keeping demand and commuter convenience in mind" Sudhir Kumar Sharma, NCRTC's Chief Public Relation Officer, told PTI.

The RRTS trains will have a design speed of 180 kmph while the operational speed will be 160 kmph. The average speed will be of 100 kmph.

Trains will be available every five to 10 minutes.

TheDelhi-Ghaziabad-Meerut corridor will have 22 stations and two depot-cum-stations at Duhai and Modipuram. The distance will be covered in around 55 minutes.

Construction work on the 17-km long prioritised section between Sahibabad and Duhai of the Delhi-Ghaziabad-Meerut corridor is in full swing and piers and viaducts will be visible soon, an official said.

While this part of the corridor will become operational by March 2023, the commercial operations on the entire Delhi-Meerut corridor will commence by 2025, the official said.

Last month, the Rajasthan government had approved the Detailed Project Report (DPR) of the Delhi-Gurugram-SNB ((Shahjahanpur-Neemrana-Behror Urban Complex) corridor -- the first phase of the Delhi-Alwar rapid rail project.

In March this year, Prime Minister Narendra Modi had laid the foundation stone of the country's first regional rail -- the Delhi-Ghaziabad-Meerut RRTS in Ghaziabad.