NEW DELHI: India will get technical cooperation from Spain to design and execute Rapid Rail Transit System (RRTS)—a first-of-its-kind project in the country with a designated speed of 180 kmph.
The Ministry of Urban Affairs has signed a technical cooperation agreement with Spanish firm Administrator de Infraestructuras Ferroviarias, a state-owned railway infrastructure company with experience in planning, developing, constructing, operating and maintaining high-speed railway and regional rail systems like Cercanias’ in Madrid.
Union Minister Hardeep Puri said the agreement will enable availability of technical advice on specific issues, besides providing training and collaboration in technical side of areas such as track structure, signalling system, rolling stock, safety, multi-modal integration and station design.
D S Mishra, Secretary, Urban Affairs, said the agreement will provide institutional mechanism for mutual cooperation in urban transport, especially, in implementation of the RRTS project.
Officials said that Société nationale des chemins de fer français (SNCF), the state-owned railway company of France, has also expressed willingness to support the RRTS project. The possibility of a similar agreement between the SNCF and National Capital Region Transport Corporation (NCRTC, a joint sector company of Government of India and states of Delhi, Haryana, Rajasthan and Uttar Pradesh) was explored during the visit of an SNCF delegation earlier this week. NCRTC is mandated to design, construct, operate and maintain rail-based RRTS in the National Capital Region.
Three RRTS corridors including Delhi-Meerut Smart Line, Delhi-Panipat Smart Line and Delhi-Alwar Smart Line have been prioritised for implementation in the first phase.
Delhi-Ghaziabad-Meerut corridor will be the first corridor to be implemented, for which pre-construction activities including geo-technical investigations, detailed design, utility-shifting planning and traffic diversion planning are in progress.