National Capital Region Transport Corporation

The Indian Railways had commissioned a study during 1998–99 to identify rail projects for commuter travel in NCR and Delhi. It identified RRTS for connecting NCR towns to Delhi with fast commuter trains. The proposal was re-examined in 2006 in the light of extension of Metro to some of the NCR towns. The Planning Commission formed a Task Force in 2005 under the Chairmanship of Secretary, Ministry of Urban Development (MoUD) to develop a multi-modal transport system for National Capital Region (NCR). This was included in the Integrated Transport Plan for NCR 2032 with special emphasis on Regional Rapid Transit System (RRTS) connecting regional centers. The Task Force identified 8 corridors and prioritised three corridors namely Delhi-Ghaziabad-Meerut, Delhi-Panipat and Delhi-Gurugram-SNB-Alwar for implementation. In March 2010, National Capital Region Planning Board (NCRPB) appointed M/S Delhi Integrated Multi-Modal Transit System for Delhi-Ghaziabad-Meerut and Delhi-Panipat and M/S Urban Mass Transit Company Limited for Delhi-Gurugram-SNB-Alwar to carry out feasibility study and prepare the Detailed Project Report.

The NCRTC came into existence in 2013. On 11 July 2013 the Union Cabinet approved constitution of National Capital Region Transport Corporation Limited (NCRTC) under the Companies Act, 1956 with initial seed capital of ₹100 crores as per Company Act, 1956 for designing, developing, implementing, financing, operating and maintaining Regional Rapid Transit system (RRTS) in National Capital Region (NCR) to provide comfortable and fast transit to NCR towns and meet the high growth in transport demand. Accordingly, NCRTC has been incorporated on 1 August 2013.[2] This company may form subsidiary companies for implementing each corridor. The seed capital was to be contributed as follows:[3]

The NCRTC board approved the Detailed Project Report (DPR) for Delhi-Ghaziabad-Meerut RRTS corridor on 6 December 2016.[4] Subsequent to the approval of DPR by States and Union Government, on 8 March 2019, the Prime Minister of India laid the foundation stone of India's first Regional Rapid Transit System (RRTS) between Delhi-Ghaziabad-Meerut. The civil construction work is in progress[5] and the priority section of the corridor between Sahibabad to Duhai is targeted to be commissioned by 2023.The travel time between the Delhi and Meerut will reduce to less than 60 minutes from the existing around three hours, once this RRTS gets operational.[6]

The second prioritized RRTS corridor between Delhi-Gurugram-SNB-Alwar is planned to be executed in three stages. The DPR of first stage between Delhi-Gurugram-SNB was approved by NCRTC Board on 6 December 2018. Subsequently, the Governments of Haryana, Rajasthan and NCT Delhi approved the DPR of the corridor and it is under active consideration of the Government of India for sanction. The DPR of second stage of this corridor between SNB (Shahjahanpur-Neemrana-Behror Urban Complex) to Sotanala has also approved by NCRTC Board on 13 March 2020.

The DPR of the third prioritized RRTS corridor between Delhi-Panipat was approved by NCRTC Board on 13 March 2020.

NCRTC unveiled the first look of India's first RRTS on 25 September 2020. The prototype of RRTS is scheduled to roll off the production line in 2022 and will be put into public use after extensive trials.[7]

Interoperability[8]

Waiting time and number of interchanges are two major deterrents in the adoption of any public transport system. To provide seamless movement to the commuters, the three RRTS corridors of phase – 1, i.e. Delhi – Ghaziabad – Meerut, Delhi - Panipat, and Delhi – Gurugram – SNB - Alwar will be integrated at Delhi's Sarai Kale Khan and remain interoperable. The interoperability of the three RRTS corridors will provide a hassle-free, comfortable, and seamless travel experience to the commuters. The trains will move from one corridor to another that facilitate commuters to travel from one corridor station to another without changing the train, thus motivating them to leave their private vehicles and switch to RRTS.

Multimodal Integration[9]

RRTS stations would be integrated with various modes of public transport systems like Airport, Indian Railway Stations, Inter-State Bus Terminus, Delhi Metro Stations, wherever possible. The integration will facilitate the seamless movement of commuters from one mode of public transport to another. Seamless integration between different modes of transport will encourage people to use public transport. While RRTS will act as a backbone for regional transportation, Delhi Metro lines will complement it by providing feeder dispersal services. The Sarai Kale Khan RRTS station will be a mega terminal where all 3 Phase-I RRTS corridors will merge.

Operation of RRTS will promote the use of public transport. It will encourage the commuters to leave their private vehicles for public transport.[11]

Option of Business Class: Each RRTS train will have a separate business coach. This will encourage the business class commuters of NCR to switch to public transport for intercity travel.

Comfortable Travel: The air-conditioned RRTS coaches will have transverse seating arrangement with an overhead space for keeping luggage, Wi-Fi connection among other modern amenities.

Women Coach : Each RRTS train will have a separate coach for women travelers just like Delhi Metro.

Universal Accessibility: The entire infrastructure of RRTS either stations or train will be made giving all due importance to universal accessibility.

The National Capital Region (NCR) has grown over the years to cover parts of states around Delhi namely, Haryana, Uttar Pradesh and Rajasthan. Today the total area which falls under NCR is about 55,083 km² with the total population of over 46 million (4.6 crores) (Census 2011). The region has seen a decadal population growth of ~24% between 2001 and 2011. Entire NCR is an urban agglomeration with an urbanization of about 62%.

Further, in 2007, the number of Passenger vehicles crossing Delhi borders breached 1,100,000 (Eleven Lakhs) per day. Further, the rail-based inter- regional commuter demand in NCR is estimated to be 1.7 million passengers per day by 2032. This has triggered the need to have effective regional public transport system on a priority.

A high-speed, comfortable and affordable mode of transport like RRTS has the potential to change the movement patterns of people and usher-in economic development across the region. With reduced travel times, the overall productivity of the region would improve, leading to improved overall economic activity leading to balanced economic development. The RRTS would lead to a polycentric economic development in a uniform manner across the region.[12]

With a reduced number of private vehicles and shift towards clean transportation system like RRTS, fuel consumption is expected to go down. Low fuel consumption means lower emissions and less pollution.[13]

RRTS has capacity to ferry a larger number of people per hour. RRTS, which could shift a large amount of traffic from road to rail could free up a lot of road space and ease congestion on highways across the NCR. The Delhi-Ghaziabad-Gurugram RRTS corridor alone is expected to take off over 1 lakh vehicles from the road, easing congestion on the road.[14]

The three corridors of Phase-I alone is expected to generate 21000 direct jobs. The RRTS would open up new markets and opportunities for people by connecting them through a high-speed network. The commuters will get a world-class travel experience. The faster commute would allow people to have access to better facilities like healthcare, education etc.[15]

The high-speed journey through RRTS will be offered at an affordable price leading to savings, increasing their disposable incomes and quality of life. A faster commute would free up people's time for more productive activities.[16]

With the low land footprint and high throughput, RRTS will be rail-based efficient system. It will mark a modal shift in favour of public transports, reducing the use of private vehicles. Implementation of Delhi-Ghaziabad-Meerut RRTS Corridor is expected to shift the modal share in favour of public transport from 37% to 63% in the region. A shift towards public transportation will reduce the energy use by the transport sector in the National Capital Region. This would not only lead to reduced fuel consumption in the region, but also the country's import dependence on foreign oil.[17]

NCRTC is implementing state-of-the-art rail based rapid transit system in National Capital Region with a design speed of 180 km/h. Such a speed will necessarily require grade separated track, latest signaling and control system, to ensure high throughput and safe operation. The rolling stock will be air-conditioned and having capability of high acceleration and deceleration in a very short span. The traction power will be through uniquely designed 25 KV flexible overhead catenary traction system for elevated stations and rigid overhead catenary system for tunnels. Key technologies:

Slab Track Austria system which is recognized for providing excellent riding comfort even at high-speed like 180 km/h will be used in RRTS. These tracks are being used in India for the first time. The tracks are also preferred for longer life span with less maintenance requirement. These tracks are also easy to replace.

ETCS Level-2 signalling system is being used globally for high-speed railway transit. The system equipped with modern signalling with virtual blocks & ATO functionality over LTE backbone is being used for first time in India. A key feature of the RRTS is interoperability of all the corridors and ETCS Level 2 makes it possible. The system can monitor train speed, direction and provide operation directives using radio block centre. Use of virtual block facilitated by ETCS Level-2 signalling eliminates any possibility of train collision.

SPEED is NCRTC's in-house sophisticated, robust, reliable and user-friendly platform which leverages fundamental underlying technological frameworks such as JavaScript, PHP etc. It is a monitoring and Project management Tool for reporting activities of pre- construction and construction phases of the RRTS project.

CDE is implemented for maintaining common repository of all construction and pre-construction drawings and technical documents. It enables collaboration and sharing of updated information, documents, drawings in real time to achieve single source of truth across organisation, manage design, define and implement work-flows and monitor progress actions across the organisation.[20]

BIM is an intelligent 3D model-based process that provides architecture, engineering, and construction professionals the insight and tools to more effectively plan, design, construct, and manage buildings and infrastructure. Project related components like walls, doors etc. are modelled in 3D by using various BIM software. Currently all the stations are being designed and developed on BIM platform. BIM offers realistic 3D model giving a true sense of how the actual structure will look like which is appreciated by engineers.

Continuously Operating Reference Stations, networks system including control station is being installed by NCRTC to increase the location accuracy in the Civil Construction Survey work. This system provides real-time precise coordinates for the measured locations and capable of ensuring 5 – 10 mm accuracy in the location of points, whereas, the normal GPS can only provide location accuracy of up to 10 to 15 metres. This eliminates cumulative errors in the civil Construction and results in better alignment acting as a life cycle management solution for the project.

Corridors identified for second phase, with no budgetary approval as of July 2017, are:[25][26]