Regional Rapid Transit System (RRTS)

•  An indo-Spanish technical cooperation agreement was signed on RRTS project, which will enable availability of technical advice on specific issues, besides providing training and collaboration in the technical areas of Track, Signalling, Rolling Stock, Safety, Multi modal integration, station design etc.
• This agreement will provide institutional mechanism for mutual cooperation in the field of urban transport and especially in implementation of RRTS project.

About RRTS:

• The RRTS — a brainchild of the National Capital Region Planning Board (NCRPB) — was first mooted more than four years ago to de-congest the roads and bring down pollution in Delhi, while ensuring high-speed connectivity between the Capital and its satellite towns Panipat in Haryana, Meerut in Uttar Pradesh and Alwar in Rajasthan.
• While initially these corridors were expected to terminate deep inside the Capital, the Delhi government had wanted them to stop as close to the border as possible.
• However, it has now been agreed that the corridors will not only enter the heart of the Capital but also integrate seamlessly with the Metro.
• The RRTS and the Metro networks will be complimentary to each other and act as feeder services for each other. Commuters coming from Panipat or Meerut can easily change over to a Delhi Metro line while those who want to go to the satellite cities can take the metro from near their house or office and reach their within an hour
• The seamless integration of these two networks will help in blurring NCR boundaries, and the NCR region will truly become one.
• The RRTS network will have stations near Delhi Metro stations such as New Delhi, Aerocity, Kashmere Gate etc., which will act as transport hubs with not only connectivity to the Metro network but also railway stations, the airport and Inter-State Bus Terminals.
• The RRTS is not just a transport project but also a project for sustainable urban development. It will take NCR from being unicentric with Delhi as the hub, to polycentric with similar economic development in NCR towns.

Nodal agency

• On July 11, 2013 the Union Cabinet had approved the constitution of the NCRTC with initial seed capital of Rs.100 crore for the NCR area to provide comfortable and fast transit to NCR towns and meet the high growth in transport demand.
• The special-purpose vehicle was expected to function on the lines of the Delhi Metro Rail Corporation (DMRC) and was allowed to form subsidiary companies to implement each corridor. It is only now, however, that the corporation has hit the track.

By: Vishal