NEW DELHI (Metro Rail News): The National Capital Region Transport Corporation (NCRTC), creating the ambitious Delhi-Meerut RRTS, is awaiting Central permission for the project’s second route. The multi-modal project, with a cost estimate of ₹25,000 crores, is expected to be partially operational next year.
According to NCRTC managing director Vinay Kumar Singh, the company submitted the detailed project report (DPR) to the ministry of housing and urban affairs (MoHUA) for the 107-km corridor from Delhi to SNB (Shahjahanpur-Neemrana-Behrod) in January 2019. The Center, and the governments of Delhi, Uttar Pradesh, Haryana, and Rajasthan are partners in the NRCTC. Next year, it is anticipated that the project will be partially operational.
“The second project we had submitted the DPR in January 2019 to MoHUA. They have not yet sanctioned it. The moment they sanction, we will start work. We have done all the utility diversion plans, tree cutting permissions are there, and road widening has been done,” he said. Singh added that the shifting of drains and high-tension electricity cables has also been done on the route to start construction.
The 164-kilometer Delhi to Alwar line, which would be longer and carry 1.1 million riders daily, includes the 107-kilometer Delhi-SNB route. The first phase’s 107 km would link the industrial hubs of Gurugram, Dharuhera, and Rewari in Haryana and the Indira Gandhi International Airport on its path from Sarai Kale Khan in Delhi to SNB.
If permission is given immediately, Singh claimed that the part from Sarai Kale Khan to the airport may be finished by 2025. The second corridor is one of the three Phase-1 prioritised corridors, along with the current Delhi-Ghaziabad-Meerut and the suggested Delhi-Panipat route. However, the DPR has not yet been released for the Delhi-Panipat route.
