Country’s first mega transit hub is going to be the Sarai Kalen Khan RRTS station, which has three Regional Rapid Transit System corridors covering it, said an official on Wednesday. The trains will run at an average speed of 100 kmph through this RRTS corridor which will in return encourage people to use public transport.
Besides this, the station will also be integrated with the Hazrat Nizamuddin railway station, the Delhi Metro’s Sarai Kale Khan station and the Sarai Kale Khan ISBT. The National Capital Region Transport Corporation (NCRTC) plans to convert the Delhi-Ghaziabad-Meerut, Delhi-Gurugram-SNB-Alwar and Delhi-Panipat RRTS corridors at the station.
All these combined will make the Sarai Khan RRTS station India’s first mega transit hub.
The NCRTC, which is the implementing agency of the RRTS, will develop several multi-modal integrations along the high-speed corridors, as per a plan. According to one of the officials, due to the high passenger flow at the Sarai Kalen Khan RRTS station, the NCRTS has decided that there will be separate platforms for boarding and deboarding passengers since the doors of the trains will open on both the sides. This modern technique will help in optimising passenger flow and facilitate convenient commuter movement.
Sudhir Kumar Sharma, NCRTC’s Chief Public Relations Officer said that the network has been planned by keeping in mind the demand and commuters convenience. The RRTS trains will have a design speed of 180 kmph while the operational speed will be 160 kmph. The average speed will be 100 kmph. The trains will be available at an interval of five to ten minutes
The Delhi-Ghaziabad-Meerut corridor will have 22 stations and two depot-cum-stations at Duhai and Modipuram. The distance will be covered in around 55 minutes. The corridor will be operational by March 2023 but the commercial operation on the entire Delhi-Meerut corridor will start by 2025.
In March this year, Prime Minister Narendra Modi had laid the foundation stone of the country’s first regional rail — the Delhi-Ghaziabad-Meerut RRTS in Ghaziabad.
