The construction of a 1.6-km-long bridge over the Yamuna river for the Delhi-Ghaziabad-Meerut Regional Rapid Transport System (RRTS) corridor is complete, an official of the National Capital Region Transport Corporation (NCRTC), which is executing the project, has said.
The bridge, almost parallel to the DND flyover, will connect the RRTS stations of Sarai Kale Khan and New Ashok Nagar.”Construction of a bridge over the mainstream of the Yamuna river for the Delhi-Ghaziabad-Meerut RRTS corridor has been completed.
The total length of this bridge is 1.6 km. Of this, the length of the bridge built on the river is about 626 metres and the remaining is over the Khadar area on both the sides,” the official of NCRTC said.
This is the 25th bridge to come up in the 22-km stretch of the Yamuna river from Wazirabad barrage and Okhla barrage, according to data complied by the South Asia Network on Dams, Rivers and People (SANDRP).
Among the major bridges over the Yamuna river are the ISBT Metro bridge towards Shahdara and Welcome and Delhi Metro bridges towards Yamuna Bank and towards Mayur Vihar as well as near Okhla Bird Sanctuary station, the Old Loha Pul railway bridge, Delhi Anand Vihar Railway bridge and other road bridges.
In order to construct the RRTS bridge, 32 pillars were erected over which the viaduct was constructed using box girders with the help of launching gantry. “NCRTC had to face many challenges to build this bridge on the river. Laying the foundation was a complex process. Monsoon and flood in the river this year also added to the challenges,” a senior NCRTC official said.
The official added that NCRTC has used the Building Information Modelling (BIM) technology to finalise its stations and structure designs. With the help of this technology, a 3D model of the bridge was created. It played an important role in completing the construction process with ease and efficiency, an official said.
With the construction of this bridge, about 50 km of viaduct from New Ashok Nagar in Delhi to Meerut South in Meerut has been completed, including the 17-km primary section. The process of track laying and OHE installation on the viaduct is progressing rapidly.
The 17-km priority stretch with five stations – Sahibabad, Ghaziabad, Guldhar, Duhai and Duhai Depot – has been functional for the public since October.
The entire 82-km Delhi-Ghaziabad-Meerut corridor with 25 stations is scheduled to become operational for the public by June 2025.
The trains will take 60 minutes to reach Meerut from Ghaziabad and will be available at a gap of 5-10 minutes.
However, the Delhi stretch with four stations is likely to be made operational before the inauguration of the full corridor by early 2025.
