Centre likely to approve NCRTC's ₹25,000 crore Delhi-Gurugram-SNB RRTS project soon

New Delhi, India (Urban Transport News): The work on Country's second RRTS line i.e. Delhi-Gurugram-SNB corridor will be started soon. The detailed project report (DPR) of the corridor is likely to be approved by the Union government soon, said sources. The project cost of 107-km RRTS corridor from Delhi to SNB (Shahjahanpur–Neemrana–Behrod) is estimated at Rs 25,000 crores. This line will also be implemeted by the National Capital Region Transport Corporation Ltd (NCRTC), a special purpose vehicle formed between the Centre and the governments of Delhi, Uttar Pradesh, Haryana and Rajasthan.

According to NCRTC officials, various pre-construction activities such as geotechnical investigation work and pile load tests have been completed from Indian Drugs and Pharmaceuticals Limited (IDPL) complex to Dharuhera. The shifting of utilities is also in progress. The National Capital Region Transport Corporation (NCRTC) has now written to the Gurugram Metropolitan Development Authority (GMDA) to avoid any other infrastructure development work on the alignment of the corridor.

“NCRTC is carrying out pre-construction activities on the Delhi-Gurugram-SNB urban complex (Shahjahanpur-Neemrana-Behror) RRTS corridor. At present, the utility shifting and road widening works from Kapashera border to IDPL plant are being carried out in close association with the GMDA. It aims to ensure smooth traffic movement, minimum inconvenience to residents, and speedy construction of the corridor,” said Puneet Vats, CPRO, NCRTC.

The 107km-long Delhi-Gurugram-SNB RRTS corridor, which is part of the Delhi-Alwar RRTS project, would start from Sarai Kale Khan in Delhi and culminate in Shahjahanpur of Rajasthan. In Gurugram the route will start from Old Delhi-Gurugram Road and touch NH-8 at Signature Towers via Atul Kataria Chowk.

The detailed project report (DPR) of this corridor is already submitetd to the Ministry of Housing & Urban Affairs (MoHUA) in January 2019.

“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," said Vinay Kumar Singh, Managing Director, NCRTC. "The section from Sarai Kale Khan to the airport can be completed by 2025 if the approval is given now. The second corridor is among the three prioritized regional rapid transit system corridors in Phase-1 which include the ongoing Delhi-Ghaziabad-Meerut route and the proposed Delhi-Panipat route," he added. However, the DPR for the Delhi-Panipat RRTS route is yet to be prepared. 

NCRTC is all set to commence trial run on 17-km-long "priority section" of the Delhi-Ghaziabad-Meerut RRTS corridor in this month. They are awaiting for confirmation from the MoHUA and PMO for formal flag off.