With three train sets having arrived, the National Capital Region Transport Corporation (NCRTC) is preparing to begin trial runs on the 17-km-long Priority Section of the Regional Rapid Transit System (RRTS) between Sahibabad and Duhai before the end of this month, according to sources privy to development in this regard.
Actual operations on the section, sources said, are expected to begin by mid-March next year with more sections of the RRTS’ 82-km Delhi-Ghaziabad-Meerut corridor, till Meerut (south), becoming operational by the month of June much ahead of initial plans.
The entire corridor, which is expected to be commissioned by the year 2025, aims to reduce single-point journeys between Delhi and Meerut to between 40 and 55 minutes.
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“Trial runs on the Priority Section will commence in the next 10 to 15 days; three trains have already arrived at the Duhai Depot before the operationalisation of the Section next year,” an official said.
The Priority Section includes Sahibabad, Ghaziabad, Guldhar and Duhai. The RRTS train sets have reached the Duhai Depot from their manufacturing plant at Savli in Gujarat and are nearing the completion of dynamic and static testing.
“After the Priority Section becomes operational by March 31, 2023, the corridor till the Meerut South station will become operational in phases,” the official added.
This, even as crucial stations at the core of the inter-State, high-speed rail project located in the capital – the underground Anand Vihar RRTS station and the elevated Sarai Kale RRTS station — are nearing completion.
Consisting of six platforms with four tracks, the Sarai Kale Khan RRTS station will provide connectivity to the Delhi-Panipat and Delhi-SNB-Alwar corridors under Phase I allowing passengers to travel between stations in different upcoming corridors without changing trains.
Measuring 215 metres long, 50 metres wide and 15 metres high, the station will have 14 lifts, 18 escalators, and six entry and exit gates. One entrance each will be built near the ISBT, the Hazrat Nizamuddin Metro station and the Ring Road.
Fourteen km of the corridor is in Delhi of which 9.22 km is elevated and 4.28 km is underground. The Sarai Kale Khan and the New Ashok Nagar stations are elevated while Anand Vihar is the only underground station.
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