PM Modi to open Delhi-Meerut RRTS tomorrow

New Delhi: Prime Minister Narendra Modi will inaugurate the priority section of the Delhi-Ghaziabad-Meerut Regional Rapid Transit System (RRTS) Corridor at the Sahibabad RAPIDX station in Uttar Pradesh on Friday.

The Prime Minister’s Office (PMO) said he will flag off a RAPIDX train connecting Sahibabad and Duhai Depot, marking the launch of the RRTS in India. Modi will also address a public meeting to mark the occasion and later inaugurate two stretches of the east-west corridor of the Bengaluru Metro.

The PMO said the 17-km priority section of the Delhi-Ghaziabad-Meerut RRTS corridor, which will be inaugurated, will connect Sahibabad to Duhai Depot through stations at Ghaziabad, Guldhar and Duhai. The foundation stone for the Delhi-Ghaziabad-Meerut corridor was laid by him on March 8, 2019. In line with his vision to transform regional connectivity in the country through construction of new world-class transport infrastructure, the RRTS project is being developed, the PMO said in a statement. The RRTS is a new rail-based, semi-high-speed, high-frequency commuter transit system with a design speed of 180 kmph. It is a “transformational” regional development initiative, which is designed to provide high-speed trains for intercity commuting every 15 minutes, which can go up to a frequency of every five minutes according to requirement, it said.

The PMO noted that a total of eight RRTS corridors have been identified for development in the National Capital Region, out of which three corridors have been prioritised to be implemented in Phase-I -- Delhi–Ghaziabad–Meerut, Delhi-Gurugram-SNB-Alwar and Delhi-Panipat. The Delhi-Ghaziabad-Meerut corridor is being developed at a cost of more than Rs 30,000 crore and will connect Delhi to Meerut with a travel time of less than an hour through urban centres of Ghaziabad, Muradnagar and Modinagar, the PMO said.