Govt plans Delhi-Meerut express bus as rapid rail project gets delayed

| | New Delhi
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Govt plans Delhi-Meerut express bus as rapid rail project gets delayed

Sunday, 13 January 2019 | Rajesh Kumar | New Delhi

Govt plans Delhi-Meerut express bus as rapid rail project gets delayed

The Modi Government plans to run an “express bus service” on the Delhi-Meerut expressway, taking note of delay of the Rapid Rail Transit System (RRTS) on the stretch. The Ministry of Finance has asked the Ministries of Road Transport and Highways (MoRTH) and Railways besides NITI Aayog to identify a dedicated corridor for buses on the ongoing Delhi-Meerut expressway.

“The Ministry of Finance wrote to MoRTH and Railways to this effect. The Ministry has also asked NITI Aayog to explore the feasibility of running electric buses on the corridor,” top sources told The Pioneer.

The total length of the expressway project is 82 km, of which the first 27.74 km will be 14-laned, while the rest will be 6-lane expressway.

An express bus service (also known as commuter bus service) is a bus service that is intended to run faster than normal buses between the two commuter destination points. “Express buses operate on a faster schedule by not making as many stops as normal bus services and often taking quicker routes, such as along highways, or by using dedicated lanes,” said officials of MoRTH. The RRTS project is still on paper. The UP Government has already given its approval but the Delhi Government is yet to do so.

 The project is being implemented by Ministry of Housing and Urban Affairs.

According to sources, the RRTS will be delayed as the proposal was not approved by the Project Investment Board till date. On the other hand, the Delhi-Meerut Expressway would be India’s first 14-lane highway and has been described by Prime Minister Narendra  Modi as ‘road to freedom from pollution’. It is being built at a cost of over Rs 7,500 crore.

The Delhi- Meerut Expressway project aims to provide faster and safer connectivity between Delhi and Meerut and beyond this, with Uttar Pradesh and Uttarakhand.  The expressway  involves construction of 11 flyovers/interchanges, 5 major and 24 minor bridges, 3 ROBs (rail over bridges), 36 vehicular and 14 pedestrian underpasses. It will also have elevated section of 5.91 km.

The stretch between Akshardham and UP Gate of the expressway, which has been developed in the first phase of the project, is already functional. The 8-kilometre-long stretch from UP Gate to Vijay Nagar is likely to be opened in the next two three months. The stretch from UP Gate to Vijay Nagar is a part of the 20-km long highway between UP Gate and Dasna, that the National Highways Authority of India (NHAI) is developing under the second phase of the widening project.

Apart from the first part of the stretch falling in the National Capital Territory (NCT), the Delhi-Meerut expressway is divided into three more parts. The second part from UP Gate to Dasna will have a length of about 19.28km.

The third stretch of 22.3 km from Dasna to Hapur and forth phase from Hapur to Meerut is 46 km. On completion, the expressway will reduce the travel time significantly from Delhi to Meerut to just 45 minutes from three to four hours at present.

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