The Union Cabinet on Thursday gave the nod for setting up the National Capital Region Transport Corporation Limited (NCRTC), which will implement the Regional Rapid Transit System (RRTS) projects in the NCR.
The move is expected to speed up the construction of three RRTS corridors connecting Delhi with Panipat, Alwar and Meerut.
The NCRTC is expected to be set up in the next two months, under the Companies Act, 1956, with an initial seed capital of Rs 100 crore. It will be responsible for designing, developing, implementing, financing, operating and maintaining RRTS along the lines of the Delhi Metro Rail Corporation.
According to NCR Planning Board, the three corridors are expected to be ready by 2016.
“The detailed project report for these corridors will be submitted by next week,” an NCRPB official said.
The corridors will provide comfortable and fast transit to towns in Delhi’s suburbs, officials said. According to the proposal approved by the Cabinet, the NCRTC may form subsidiary companies for implementing each corridor.
“The RRTS project is expected to benefit Delhi and NCR region. It will prompt more development in satellite towns around Delhi. The price of land around these corridors is also expected to go up,” Delhi Transport Minister Ramakant Goswami said.
The Delhi government had earlier expressed reservations about these corridors being extended to the city.
The first corridor (Delhi-Sonepat-Panipat) is 111 km long and is expected to see a daily ridership of nearly
4 lakh in 2016.
The second corridor (Delhi-Gurgaon-Alwar) is 180 km long and is estimated to cater to 7 lakh people daily in 2016.
The third corridor (Delhi-Ghaziabad-Meerut) is 90 km long and would carry an estimated 5.7 lakh people every day in 2016.
The three corridors have a total length of 381 km. Eight such corridors are expected to be developed in NCR.
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