NCRTC Approves Delhi – Ghaziabad – Meerut Rapid Transit Line
This news marks an excellent time for me to start tracking the 700 km Delhi-NCR’s Regional Rapid Transit System (RRTS) project which has been in the works for over 10 years now. If you love the Delhi Metro for its size, then you’d definitely love this project which will be similar to Paris’ RER and Munich’s S-Bahn systems. For a quick summary & map of this exciting project which will disrupt existing transit patterns over the next 25 years, refer to this newly created page: Delhi-NCR Regional Rapid Transit System – Information, Map & Updates. It can also be quickly accessed via the cities tab > Delhi > RRTS Information in the menu bar above. 🙂
On Tuesday, the board of the National Capital Region Transport Corporation (NCRTC), which has been tasked with building NCR’s RRTS project, approved the 92.05 km Delhi – Ghaziabad – Meerut line at a cost of Rs. 21,902 crores.
As per the line’s Detailed Project, it will consist of 17 stations (11 elevated & 6 underground) and trains will run at a max speed of 160 kmph to drastically cut down the time between Delhi & Meerut to approximately 48 minutes. This line is expected to carry about 7.91 lakh passengers daily in 2024, 9.20 lakh in 2031 and 11.40 lakh passengers in 2041. The Peak Hour Peak Day Traffic (PHPDT) is estimated to be 18,224 in 2024, 22,215 in 2031 and 26,462 in 2041. Aerodynamic trains on the line will consist of 12 coaches with 2 + 2 transverse seating and will have one business class coach in each train.
Out of the route’s 92.05km length, 60.354 km will be elevated while 30.245km will be underground between Nizamuddin – Sahibabad (13.15 km), Meerut South – Meerut North (9.34 km) and on the spur line between Shatabadi Nagar – Lala Lajpat Rai Memorial Medical College (7.42 km). The 1.451 km connection to both depots at Duhai and Modipuarm will be built at-grade.
The line’s western terminal will be located in Nizamuddin and will be connnected to the Delhi Metro’s 58.6 km Pink Line, Nizamuddin Railway Station (NZM) and to the Sarai Kale Khan Inter-State Bus Terminus (ISBT).
Map of Delhi – Ghaziabad – Meerut RRTS line – view RRTS Information & Map
Stations on this line will be spaced an average of 5.4 km apart and will be located at Nizamuddin/Sarai Kale Khan, Anand Vihar, Sahibabad, Mohannagar, Ghaziabad, Guldhar, Duhai, Muradnagar, Modinagar, Meerut South, Shatabdi Nagar, Nauchandi/Hapur Road, HRS Chowk, Begam Pul, Meerut North and Modipuram.
Next Steps
With the NCRTC approving the line, the DPR will now be sent to the Delhi & Uttar Pradesh Governments for their cabinets’ approval. Since this project involves big bucks, this will be an extremely time consuming process and can take up to 2 years to receieve. Since the Government of India holds a 50% stake, the DPR will then have to be approved by its cabinet as well, so it’ll be quite a while before bids are invited for commencing civil construction.
For more updates, check out the NCR RRTS section of The Metro Rail Guy!
– TMRG
Wow, I had no clue about a project like this. Even though I’ll probably never go to Meerut, I do see myself using it to go to Anand Vihar or using the Alwar line from INA to Cybercity. Can’t wait bro.
I saw your page which has the maps.. looks like whole project will provide good connectivity to Delhi from the nearby sub-urban areas. I have only one question though.. do you think the Delhi portion which is mostly underground can be constructed because there are way too many metro tunnels already. Especially the Delhi Alwar line which has 32 km underground section in Delhi.
Too many tunnels is not really a problem. Remember, in terms of the relative dimensions, this is like inserting needles into a slice of cake. The bigger problem is that NCR Planning Board is relatively toothless, in my opinion and generic transportation planning for NCR is a big mess. Otherwise, technologically simple projects like the KMP expressway and the EPR/DPR wouldn’t have been stuck as long as they have
Very well put! Exactly my thoughts.
Sorry by EPR/DPR I meant Eastern Peripheral Expressway and Western Peripheral Expressway, EPE/WPE.
hi tmrg !!
Wont the Meerut part clash with Meerut Metro’s north south route ?
Or it might have to be some hybrid system !
https://themetrorailguy.com/2016/01/27/rites-submits-dpr-for-meeruts-metro-project-to-mda/
Same question here. And do we need the meerut metro system aftet this rrts?
It’ll be interesting to see what they do – either they’ll drop it or perhaps redo their plans? Let’s see.
And should’nt the alwar rrts be joined with the airport express line at gurugram so that there is no further construction is needed to extend the alwar rrts to the heart of the capital? Moreover, this will make the airport line more frasible to operate.
I would have preferred if the airport express was re-purposed and extended in either direction – (1) towards Gurgaon -> Alwar and (2) towards Anand Vihar -> Ghaziabad, but I guess that plan has no takers.
Is it really posssible through TBMs to extend the orange line from new delhi towards anand vihar? Because the end point heads towards old delhi so it is going to be pretty much difficult to curve it toward anand vihar. Just curious!!!
The turn towards east Delhi is easily manageable and not a design limiter. It’ll be similar to how the Violet Line turns from Janpath towards Mandi House – see the Delhi Metro map here or how Kolkata Metro’s Line-2 turns from Howrah Maidan towards Howrah – see the Kolkata Metro map here.
You should see how the Magenta Line turns south of the Airport towards Shankar Vihar forming a really tight U! Compared to this, the Railway Station to Anand Vihar section is nothing. 🙂
definitely airport line must connect to alwar RRTS.
@abheek..i understand that buy apart from that there is one more concern that these project might face long bureaucratic delays. It involves three state govt. BJP in haryana, SP in UP and the famous AAP in delhi. Dont know how much time the approvals will take. We have already seen metro phase 4 delays caused by AAP govt. It will escalate cost also.
Totally agree. Metro phase IV has been pointlessly delayed. Before this NH-8 upgradation dragged on for years and years while three govts (coincidentally of the same party with that party also at the center) of Delhi, Haryana and Rajasthan fought with each other over cost escalation issues. Now of course we have the AAP govt in Delhi who has very little interest in urban decongestion and mass transportation; they still haven’t found time to buy 5000 DTC busses that they promised last year to the SC. To be very honest, SP govt seems to be the most proactive of the lot; they will probably not create too many hurdles.
I feel the SP is proactive nowadys coz of the elections coming. AAP on the other hand is a totally different party. They are busy in elections in Punjab , Goa and their leader is busy on Modi..:D
I heard that Delhi govt. wanted to modify the routes of phase 4 so as to benefit rural areas.I think that is a good thing. this caused the time in giving go ahead.they had time as phase 3 is yet to finish.unlike shiela dikshit, current Delhi govt. has never objected to DMRC doing/ consulting work in other cites. some state govts. want to showcase metros as their achievement, so they move fast on it to try completing it within their tenure. SP govt, I feel falls in this category. it might be a good thing.
speaking of delays, nothing beats Mumbai. Mumbai has only 01 metro line operational & will talke more than atleast 2 years to see a metro stretch operational, all thanks to previous cong-ncp govt. construction of line 2 would have started in cong era had it been better managed.tender was awarded for this line.
RRTS will in a way compete with rail ways & will have much less daily travellers than a metro.the fact that we do NOT have a single agency or government to concentrate on RRTS lines will be single biggest stumbling block for all RRTS lines. also RRTS lines must terminate at metro terminals in suburbs of NCR- delhi. they can be extended later. this will eliminate more costly underground sections in crowded city.
What’s wrong in showcasing projects?
If that is completed project, what is purpose of elections or Govts…?
That’s great news. Just curious on how do they predict daily and peak hour traffic. I doubt these traffic estimates between Delhi and Meerut, to make the project economically viable. I guess most passengers shall drop-off on outskirts of Ghaziabad. I guess running such trains between Mumbai-Pune or Bangluru-Chennai might make it more feasible. What’s your opinion tmrg?
Chinmay….delhi meerut route is a hevaily congested one…it is surely going to be a viable project. Moreover, rrts cant be a substitue for railways, as you are asking for mumbai pune or bengaluru chennai. We need to upgrade our current railway system instead of demanding inter city metro rail system aka rrts between tier 1 metropolitans. And i am not biased for meerut. Today only, i travelled from delhi to meerut in 4 hours for a stretch of 65kms!!!!! Railways as well as roadways are saturated for this route. Do tell me if i missed something.
Chinmay – Daily and PHPDT traffic is derived after studying & recording traffic volume over time and extrapolating it. All DPR creators (RITES/DMRC etc) usually inflate it to show viability and that’s why you see ridership often missing the mark in all cities.
Is this broad gauge or standard guage?
Likely to be broad gauge.
See this link: http://ncrhomes.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/12/Delhi-Meerut-High-Speed-Metro-YamunaTunnel.jpg
Hi, as per the DPR and all recent news articles covering the project, the tracks will be standard gauge – example
Some are saying BG & some SG.
But I think for us BG is better.
I think HSR also will be BG.
I have one more query to make. Instead of bringing these rrts into the heart of the city that too underground, why cant they terminate them at the terminals of dmrc? Like for meerut rrts, it can be terminated at Naya bus adda or Mohan Nagar. This will reduce the time of the project as well as costs and moreover it will bring easy access to commuters. Even if they want to, they can assign a subsequesnt extension for it later. Shouldnt the priority be to make it reach at least the terminals of dmrc stations instead of focussing on time and money consuming DPRs to bring it to the centre of New Delhi?
Hi, the first priority is actually to get the lines functioning up to the periphery, but the system’s benefits will only come when the portion within Delhi is completed. Without that, journey times will remain high and the system’s utility will go down. Not to mention, unleashing passengers at the terminals would also put a big stress on the DM network.
For example, if someone wants to go from Alwar to Meerut, they’ll have have to:
1) take the RRTS to IFFCO Chowk
2) take the DM’s Yellow Line to INA
3) take the DM’s Pink Line to Nizamuddin
4) take the RRTS to Meerut
See how crazy that would be, especially for new users?
For people within Delhi, it’ll help to shorten commute times. Nizamuddin to Kashmere Gate in 10 minutes instead of 45? I’ll take that!
That is a good reason to extend it to the heart of the city, but my concern still remains the same i.e. it should start asap atleast to the periphery, not getting sabotaged due to the extension inwards to the nct of delhi. If that is the case then it will be more of an early relief to commuters to have atleast connectivity to metro terminals. Thanks.
Ah, guess you were right Mayank lol
They started the sections along the periphery of both cities as it was easier to construct in decongested areas.
The entire route (encompassing the urban areas of both Delhi and Meerut) will start by July next year
High speed rail link by 2023 to cut journey time to 30 minutes at 100 km/h between Kashmere Gate and Gurgaon (Apr 23, 2017)
http://economictimes.indiatimes.com/news/economy/infrastructure/high-speed-rail-link-by-2023-to-cut-journey-time-to-30-minutes-at-100-km/h-between-kashmere-gate-and-gurgaon/articleshow/58324162.cms
In how many years we can travel in Metro in Meerut?
Woh janta or group Jinja Ghar or dukan road side hai unka kya Hoga ,please take a proper survey
its good but i also wanna know that, kya sarak ke kinare wali dukane to phir band ho jaaengi unka kya hoega…..
Hi Sir,
Very super Delhi Mèerut project, can we know the location of the station? For example in Modinagar.
Regards
One opp of Umesh Park and one in Bank colony
Any idea of route from kale Khan to new Ashok nagar