Seven RRTS stations in Gzb to have footbridges for passengers and pedestrians

Ghaziabad: The Regional Rapid Transit System (RRTS) project passing through Ghaziabad will have a footbridge facility for passengers as well as regular pedestrians at seven out of the eight stations in the district. The district has eight RRTS stations which are under advanced stages of development before the 82-kilometre-long project gets commissioned in March 2025.

The project is pegged at 30,274 crore and will link the three cities of Delhi, Ghaziabad and Meerut with a high-speed train network with a design speed of 180 kilometres per hour (kmph). A part of the project, a 17-km section (having five RRTS stations) in Ghaziabad is getting developed as a ‘priority section’ and it will be the country’s first RRTS section to be operational in March 2023.

“Ghaziabad has eight stations including the one at Duhai depot which is not located on any major road and is at a considerable distance from the Delhi-Meerut Road. Of the eight stations, seven elevated stations are getting developed with entry/exit points on both sides so that the stations are accessible to passengers from either side of the road,” said Puneet Vats, chief public relations officer, National Capital region Transport Corporation (NCRTC), the agency that has undertaken the RRTS project.

“The entry/exits at seven stations in Ghaziabad are getting designed on both sides of the roads. This will help passengers to cross over busy roads such as the Link Road and the Delhi-Meerut Road. These entry/exits will be accessible not just for RRTS passengers but also for pedestrians who can use them to cross major roads without entering the paid area of the RRTS stations. We have incorporated a pedestrian-friendly feature and it will help in the safe movement of pedestrians and also help in crowd management at stations,” Vats added.

The eight stations in Ghaziabad are located at Sahibabad, Ghaziabad city, Guladhar, Duhai, Duhai Depot, Modinagar (north) and Modinagar (south).

NCRTC officials said that once fully operational, the RRTS project will have a ridership of about 800,000 passengers on a daily basis.

In Ghaziabad, the Sahibabad station is located over the busy Link Road connecting traffic to Delhi’s Anand Vihar while the other six stations (excluding Duhai Depot) are located over the busy Delhi-Meerut Road, which is estimated to have a traffic volume of about 120,000 vehicles per day.

Ghaziabad city also has a high number of road fatalities and the major roads are also unsafe for pedestrians.

According to official records of the transport department, accidents during the eight-month period (January to August 2022) resulted in 242, as compared to 256 deaths during the same period in 2021 and 194 fatalities in 2020.

A total of 402 people were injured in accidents during the eight-month period in 2022, as opposed to 346 injuries in 2021 and 286 in 2020.

“Pedestrians’ safety is one of the vital aspects which need to be improved in Ghaziabad. Once the RRTS project gets operational, the movement of passengers and pedestrians will also increase and there will be a need to improve their safety aspect,” said Rajendra Tyagi, Raj Nagar councillor.

“Many residential localities are located on major roads and people frequently use the road medians to cross over to the other side. This poses high risk for them amid fast-moving traffic. So, the facility at RRTS stations will come in handy,” Tyagi added.

The NCRTC officials said that the five stations of the priority section in Ghaziabad are under advanced stages of development as these will be the first to become operational next year.