Supreme Court allows to construct viaduct for RRTS in Delhi's Forest Area

New Delhi, India (Urban Transport News): Construction of railway line viaduct for Delhi - Panipat RRTS corridor will be done in the statutory forest area of Millenium Park in Delhi. In a major decision, the Supreme Court of India gave the permissions to National Capital Region Transport Corporation Limited (NCRTC) to commence construction and civil activities in Delhi's Forest Area.

NCRTC is a nodal body to implement RRTS projects in Delhi-NCR. The construction work for RRTS will be done in 1 acre of the area in the Millennial Park which comes under the Forest Area of Delhi. Furthermore, this RRTS between Delhi and Panipat will reduce a minimum of 45 minutes of total time travel.

The Supreme Court of India had banned any kind of construction in Delhi's forest areas in 1996. Now, Supreme Court's Chief Justice S A Bobde has modified its 1st March 1996 order on the Centre's request. Therefore, granted permission to construct the Delhi - SNB - Alwar RRTS and Delhi - Panipat RRTS corridors of the mass rapid transit system for Delhi & NCR.

Chief Justice Bobde said, “We consider it appropriate to give the permission for the construction of Delhi-Panipat Corridor over an area of 1 acre in the Millenium Park of Delhi.”

RRTS project aims to offer services between New Delhi and Tier-2 cities in adjoining states viz. Uttar Pradesh, Haryana and Rajasthan. Additionally, it will provide a design speed of 180 km per hour and an average speed of 100 km per hour. In the first phase of RRTS, NCRTC will construct three semi-high speed rail corridors to connect Delhi to Meerut, Alwar and Panipat regions.

The first RRTS project will connect Modipuram in Meerut to Sarai Kale Khan in Delhi through constructing a rail-based rapid transit system of 82-km. Furthermore, the project involves the construction of an 82 km long rapid rail corridor with 24 stations.