₹250cr for rail link that will cut travel time to Meerut
GHAZIABAD The Uttar Pradesh government on Friday allocated a budget of ₹250 crore for the Delhi-Ghaziabad-Meerut Rapid Rail Transit System (RRTS), which will reduce travel time between Delhi and Meerut to an hour.
This line is part of three highspeed rail corridors — DelhiMeerut, Delhi-Alwar and DelhiPanipat — in the first phase of the RRTS, being implemented by the National Capital Region Transport Corporation Limited (NCRTC) in a joint venture of the central government with the governments of Haryana, Delhi, Uttar Pradesh and Rajasthan.
The budgetary provision for the Meerut line was made by the UP government in its budget presented for the 2018-19 fiscal.
The corridor will pass through densely populated areas of Delhi, Sahibabad, Ghaziabad city, Guldhar, Duhai, Muradnagar and Modinagar, and will terminate at Modipuram in Meerut.
The corridor is likely to start operations by 2024.
The journey from Delhi to Meerut through the high-speed train system is estimated to be just one hour.
In the 2018-19 Union Budget, the central government allo- cated ₹659 crore for phase 1 of the RRTS.
“The allocation of ₹250 crore in the Uttar Pradesh budget for RRTS will boost the ongoing works related to RRTS phase I of NCRTC on Delhi- Meerut corridor. In the Union Budget, the government has allocated a sum of ₹659 crore to this project,” said Sudhir Sharma, chief public relation officer, NCRTC.
A total of eight corridors under RRTS have been identified under the Integrated Transport Plan 2032 prepared by the National Capital Region Planning Board (NCRPB).
The NCRTC has already created the first field unit in Ghaziabad and posted officers. The preconstruction work has already started on the Delhi-Meerut section and more project offices will be set up at various points.
The Delhi-Ghaziabad-Meerut corridor is planned for multimodal integration at Sarai Kale Khan, Anand Vihar and Sahibabad where commuters can interchange for other transport modes like the Metro.
The UP government also allocated ₹94.26 crore for the Kailash Mansarovar pilgrim centre to come up in Indirapuram.