India’s first rapid rail for the Delhi to Meerut corridor was unveiled by the National Capital Regional Transport Corporation (NCRTC) on Wednesday.

The Regional Rapid Transit System (RRTS) train will run on the Delhi-Ghaziabad-Meerut corridor and cover a distance of 82 km in just 55 minutes. It will also be the first in the country to have a business or ‘premium’ coach on a regional corridor.

The new RRTS train is a completely new design of train designed to provide a good travelling experience for passengers. Phase 1 of manufacturing of the train started back in 2021 and is now nearing the testing and trial phase to be done by the end of this year.

“Since the inception of the RRTS project, commuter convenience has been our priority. The entire infrastructure, be it trains or stations, has been designed to ensure safety, ease of access, and comfort for commuters so that it will become the people’s first choice,” NCRTC managing director Vinay Kumar said, as reported by The Indian Express.

FEATURES OF RRTS TRAIN

The six coaches of the train will have 407 seats in total. The train is capable of accommodating 1500 passengers at once. The train has been designed to have a setting resembling the one on an aircraft. The premium coach has reclining seats with more legroom, coat hangers and a vending machine facility.

It is capable of achieving three times the speed of a metro. Looking into the numbers, the train has an average speed of 100 km/hr and a maximum speed of 160 km/hr.

The RRTS train will have 2×2 transverse seating, wide standing space, overhead luggage racks, CCTV cameras, sockets at every seat for laptop/mobile charging, dynamic route maps, auto control ambient lighting system, heating ventilation and air conditioning (HVAC) system, and other amenities.

The coaches have three doors for entry and exit, are fully air-conditioned and have wide gangways. While the trains are automated, train operators will be present inside to oversee operations.

The train is expected to be traversing the tracks by March 2023, covering five stations between Sahibabad, in Ghaziabad District of Uttar Pradesh to Duhai in Uttar Pradesh.