RRTS only for the rich, say Ghaziabad-Delhi commuters
The Delhi-Meerut Regional Rapid Transit System (RRTS), which is scheduled to open next year, is meant to make life easy for commuters by connecting Ghaziabad with Sarai Kale Khan through Sahibabad, Anand Vihar, and New Ashok Nagar.
The mass transit system has an average speed of 100 km/hr, and all its coaches are air-conditioned. Currently, only a 17km, ve-station stretch — Sahibabad to Duhai Depot in Uttar Pradesh — of the corridor is operational.
The RRTS has been a big-ticket project for the BJP in the run-up to the general election. Prime Minister Narendra Modi had inaugurated the Sahibabad-Duhai Depot stretch in October last year.
However, Sanjeev Kumar, who lives in Sundarpuri, 10 minutes away from the newly inaugurated RRTS station in Ghaziabad, and travels six days a week to his workplace at Connaught Place, is not looking forward to the opening of the Ghaziabad-Delhi stretch due to ticket prices.
The price of a standard class ticket between Sahibabad and Duhai Depot is ₹50 and that of the premium class is ₹100.
“With a monthly salary of ₹40,000, which hasn’t risen over the past few years, why will I shell out ₹40-50 for a one-way ticket every day when I can spend ₹500 to get a threemonth railway pass?” he said.
Rajat Singh, 26, who works in a factory in Delhi, says the Centre does not understand the “struggles of the common man”. He said the Centre should try to improve the frequency and punctuality of local trains that are a lifeline for people instead of announcing high-speed trains.