Indigenously designed ballastless tracks to be used for high-speed RRTS trains

New Delhi: The National Capital Region Transport Corporation will use indigenously designed ballastless tracks for the country's first Regional Rapid Transit System (RRTS), a technology that supports high-speed trains, an official said on Monday. These tracks will be suitable for high-speed trains running up to 180 kmph and require low maintenance, an NCRTC official said, claiming that until now, such technology did not exit in the country.
Track slabs will first be used on the 17-km-long Sahibabad-Duhai priority section of the Delhi-Ghaziabad-Meerut RRTS corridor. The section will be operational by 2023, while the entire 82-km-long corridor will be completed by 2025.

India's first RRTS corridor is being implemented between Delhi and Meerut via Ghaziabad, Duhai and Modi Nagar. The time to commute from Delhi to Meerut will be reduced to less than an hour from the current three-four hours by road.

The NCRTC said that the construction of the track slab factory for the Delhi-Ghaziabad-Meerut RRTS corridor has begun recently in the Shatabdi Nagar casting yard and is slated to be completed within 180 days.

The factory will start production of track slabs to meet the target of operationalising the 17-km priority section that will have four stations -- Sahibabad, Ghaziabad, Guldhar and Duhai.

"One of the key technological features of India's first RRTS is its ballastless track. These unique ballastless tracks suitable for 180kmph speed is being used for the first time in India and will require low maintenance. It will be manufactured indigenously in a unit, currently being constructed in Meerut," said Puneet Vats, CPRO, NCRTC.

The work on the 82-km Delhi-Ghaziabad-Meerut RRTS Corridor is going on in full swing and its 17-km priority section between Sahibabad and Duhai is targeted to be operational by 2023, he said.

One of the key features of India's first RRTS is multimodal integration and stations will be seamlessly integrated with metro stations, airport, railway stations and inter-state bus terminals, which will provide a hassle-free travel experience to commuters.

NCRTC said that the formation of viaduct has gained momentum at the priority section and the civil construction of the Duhai depot has also commenced.

One coach in every RRTS train will be reserved for women passengers. Given the high-speed train operations, all RRTS stations will have platform screen doors (PSDs) for the safety of the passengers.

The train doors will be integrated with PSDs. NCRTC, the executing agency of RRTS, recently signed an MoU with Bharat Electrical Limited for indigenous development of PSDs.

In September last year, the Union housing and urban affairs ministry had unveiled the first look of the RRTS train, the design of which is inspired by Delhi's iconic Lotus Temple. It can attain a top speed of 180 kilometres per hour on the Delhi-Ghaziabad-Meerut corridor.

According to the ministry, with a radiating stainless steel outer body, the aerodynamic RRTS trains will be lightweight and fully air-conditioned.