Rapid rail corridors to be linked to Delhi Metro, Indian Railways stations! India’s first regional rapid transit system (RRTS) will be integrated with other modes of local transport systems in Delhi at various multimodal transport hubs. The three proposed corridors in phase-1 of RRTS will be integrated with as many as eight Delhi Metro stations, three inter-state bus terminals (ISBTs) as well as two Indian Railways stations in the national capital apart from several other towns in the national capital region (NCR). According to Sudhir Kumar Sharma, Chief Public Relation Officer (CPRO),RRTS, the multi-modal integration will be provided through elevators, walkways, escalators as well as underpasses, depending on the location, to ensure that commuters get seamless transit options.
According to Sharma, the three proposed RRTS corridors, namely Delhi-Ghaziabad-Meerut, Delhi-Gurugram-Alwar and Delhi-Sonipat-Panipat will converge at Sarai Kale Khan, which will have an RRTS station, Delhi Metro station and an Indian Railway station at Hazrat Nizamuddin. The Hazrat Nizamuddin station will be a few metres away. Apart from this, the other integration points of the three RRTS corridors are as follows:
- The 82-km Delhi-Ghaziabad-Meerut corridor will connect with the Delhi Metro Blue Line stations at New Ashok Nagar as well as Anand Vihar in the capital. It will have multi-modal integration with the Anand Vihar ISBT as well as the Anand Vihar railway station.
- The 164-km Delhi-Gurugram-Alwar RRTS corridor will be linked with Delhi Metro Yellow Line station of Jorbagh, Delhi Metro Magenta Line station of Munirka as well as Delhi Metro Airport Express Line station of Aerocity.
- The 103-km Delhi-Sonipat-Panipat RRTS corridor will connect with Delhi Metro Blue Line station of Indraprastha as well as Delhi Metro Red Line station of Kashmere Gate.
Once the Delhi-Ghaziabad-Meerut RRTS corridor will get operational, it will reduce the travel time between Delhi and Meerut to just 55 minutes, according to the National Capital Region Transport Corporation (NCRTC), which is the implementing organisation of the RRTS project. According to NCRTC, the detailed project report of Delhi-Sonipat-Panipat RRTS corridor is being revised and further, more Indian Railways stations, ISBTs and Delhi Metro stations may be added to the list of integrations with RRTS stations.