a train operator, is stationed at Duhai village in Ghaziabad, Uttar Pradesh. Amid its sprawling sugarcane fields, a large rail maintenance depot with state-of-the-art facilities has sprung up. Four semi-high speed train sets, manufactured by Alstom at its factory in Savli, Gujarat, have arrived at the depot’s stabling yard. “I have heard two more are coming this month,” says Bhakar, as he escorts this reporter into a brand-new train in which plastic wrappers have yet to be removed from the seats.
With MoHUA anchoring an ever expanding metro rail network and the soonto-be launched regional rail, the Indian Railways is losing its monopoly on running trains in large parts of India. The trend will be more noticeable in the coming years as urba...
By Shantanu Nandan Sharma, ET BureauLast Updated: Jan 09, 2023, 10:02 AM IST18
Vikram Bhakar, a train operator, is stationed at Duhai village in Ghaziabad, Uttar Pradesh. Amid its sprawling sugarcane fields, a large rail maintenance depot with state-of-the-art facilities has sprung up. Four semi-high speed train sets, manufactured by Alstom at its factory in Savli, Gujarat, have arrived at the depot’s stabling yard. “I have heard two more are coming this month,” says Bhakar, as he escorts this reporter into a brand-new train in which plastic wrappers have yet to be removed from the seats.
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The coaches have route map displays, CCTVs, overhead luggage racks, mobileand laptop-charging sockets, double-glazed safety glass windows, fire and smoke detectors et al. One of the six coaches is for business class passengers —with more legroom, reclining seats and entry from a special lounge in the platform. As many as 30 such train sets will be deployed in the Delhi-Meerut corridor of the Regional Rapid Transit System (RRTS), the first-ofits-kind rapid rail venture in India for suburban commuters, a part of which (17 km) is expected to be rolled out in March.
However, none of these facilities — the Duhai depot, the new train sets, or the newly built rail corridor — belongs to the Indian Railways. They are administered by the National Capital Region Transport Corporation (NCRTC), a joint venture company of the government of India and Delhi, Haryana, Rajasthan and Uttar Pradesh. It is under the administrative control of the Ministry of Housing and Urban Affairs (MoHUA). While NCRTC has been working on three RRTS corridors — Delhi-Meerut (82 km), DelhiAlwar (198 km) and Delhi-Panipat (103 km) — there have been talks of extending some of those routes to cities such as Jaipur and Chandigarh.
With MoHUA anchoring an ever expanding metro rail network and the soonto-be launched regional rail, the Indian Railways is losing its monopoly on running trains in large parts of India. The trend will be more noticeable in the coming years as urban rail networks up to 100-150 km beyond city limits are being designed and implemented. According to recent data, the length of total approved metro rail and RRTS lines is 1,835 km — all outside the control of the Ministry of Railways. About 824 km of metro lines are functional in 20 cities. The Railways still owns 68,000 km of rail routes of which 54,000 km were built during the Raj.
NCRTC MD Vinay Kumar Singh tells ET that he has been receiving enquiries from various state governments on RRTS, an indication that the regional rail network may expand on a grand scale in the near future.
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