RRTS Train To Be Known As Namo Bharat

A day before Prime Minister Narendra Modi's inauguration, RapidX train service on the Regional Rapid Transit System (RRTS) will be now known as 'Namo Bharat'.

India's first semi-high speed regional rail service is slated to be flagged of by Prime Minister on Friday (20 October) on the priority section of the Delhi-Ghaziabad-Meerut corridor.

The Prime Minister's Office (PMO) on Wednesday said he will flag off a RapidX train connecting Sahibabad and Duhai Depot stations, marking the launch of the RRTS in India.

It is a "transformational" regional development initiative, which is designed to provide high-speed trains for intercity commuting every 15 minutes, which can go up to a frequency of every five minutes according to requirement, the PMO had said.

The 17-km Priority Section of the Delhi-Ghaziabad-Meerut RRTS Corridor is slated to be opened for passengers on 21 October, a day after its inauguration.

The section between Sahibabad and Duhai Depot has five stations: Sahibabad, Ghaziabad, Guldhar, Duhai and Duhai Depot.

The foundation stone for the Delhi-Ghaziabad-Meerut corridor was laid by Prime Minister Modi on 8 March 2019.

In line with his vision to transform regional connectivity in the country through construction of new world-class transport infrastructure, the RRTS project is being developed, the Prime Minister's Office (PMO) had said in a statement on Wednesday.

The RRTS is a new rail-based, semi-high-speed, high-frequency commuter transit system with a design speed of 180 kmph.

It is a "transformational" regional development initiative, which is designed to provide high-speed trains for intercity commuting every 15 minutes, which can go up to a frequency of every five minutes according to requirement, the PMO had said.

It had noted that a total of eight RRTS corridors have been identified for development in the National Capital Region, out of which three corridors have been prioritised to be implemented in Phase-I of Delhi-Ghaziabad-Meerut, Delhi-Gurugram-SNB-Alwar and Delhi-Panipat.

The Delhi-Ghaziabad-Meerut corridor is being developed at a cost of more than Rs 30,000 crore and will connect Delhi to Meerut with a travel time of less than an hour through urban centres of Ghaziabad, Muradnagar and Modinagar, the PMO had said.

The RRTS is a state-of-the-art regional mobility solution and is comparable to the best in the world, it had said.