Roller coaster ride awaits RRTS users on priority lane
THE HEIGHT OF THE PILLARS UNDER THE PRIORITY SECTION RANGES FROM JUST 8M TO 22.5M
GHAZIABAD: Riders of the Regional Rapid Transit System (RRTS) will have an experience unlike any other— a roller coaster journey that would see them go from below the Hindon elevated road to above the Delhi Metro’s Red Line near the New Bus Adda metro station.
The NCR Transport Corporation (NCRTC) has completed the construction of pillars that will allow high-speed trains to traverse five major infrastructures in Ghaziabad under the 17km priority section of the line from Sahibabad to Duhai.
The 82km RRTS, between Delhi and Meerut, is being built at a cost of ₹30,274 crore. The priority section will be the first stretch to be operationalised — in March 2023 — and the full project is likely to be commissioned in 2025.
“The 17km priority section was a major engineering challenge as the existing infrastructure posed hindrance to the alignment of the rapid line. Our teams overcame these hurdles with the help of IT enabled systems and timely planning. The varying gradient, acceleration and deceleration of trains were kept in mind while erecting the alignment,” said Puneet Vats, chief PRO of NCRTC.
The height of the pillars under the priority section ranges from just eight metres to 22.5 metres.
The official said after emerging from the underground section near Kaushambi, trains will be at grade with the Vaishali Metro station at a height of about 10 metres. It will then encounter its first major structure — the flyover crossing near Vasundhara where the pillars and alignment have been raised to a height of 16 metres against the standard height of 10 metres.
The tracks will turn and run parallel to the Delhi-howrah railway section where rapid trains will zoom past below the city’s Hindon elevated road at a pillar height of about eight metres before crossing the railway tracks and river Hindon.
“Towards the New Bus Adda metro station, the trains will move on tracks raised to a height of about 22.5 metres that will take it above the Metro line (Red Line). Here, we also have a major interchange station which will connect passengers to the Delhi Metro,” Vats said.
From there, trains will further move over the median of the Delhi-meerut Road on pillars built at standard height, which will be raised to about 12.5 metres to avoid the splitshaped Raj Nagar Extension flyover.
Finally, the height will further be raised to 15 metres which will allow the rapid trains to move above the Eastern Peripheral Expressway and proceed towards Modinagar and Meerut.
“It will be an exhilarating experience for passengers as the high-speed trains will move above and below the different infrastructure projects and they will be able to view the city’s skyline very closely. The priority section has started taking shape and different system contractors have started works like laying of tracks, installation of signalling, overhead electricity lines and electricity distribution works,” said an officer from NCRTC.
The work on five RRTS stations under the priority section have moved to the next level at Sahibabad, New Bus Adda (Ghaziabad), Guldhar, Duhai and Duhai depot.
The actual operational speed of the rapid trains will be 160kmph, while their average speed will be about 100kmph.
Of the 82km, a 70km Regional Rapid Transit System section will be elevated.