India & Spain sign agreement for RRTS project

Speed Post News Network

New Delhi : An Indo-Spanish technical cooperation (government to government) agreement was signed by Vinay Kumar Singh, Managing Director, National Capital Region Transport Corporation (NCRTC), Miguel Nieto Menor, Director General, Administrador de Infraestructuras Ferroviarias ( ADIF), Spain, in the presence of Housing and Urban Affairs (HUA) Minister Hardeep Singh Puri, and Durga Shanker Mishra, Secretary in the ministry, here on November 29, 2017, evening.

The ceremony was attended by Fernando Nocolos Puiggari, Director International, ADIF, senior ministry officials, representatives from ministry of external affairs and Spanish embassy in India.
In his speech on the occasion,  HUA Minister Puri informed that the agreement will enable availability of technical advice on specific issues, besides providing training and collaboration in the technical areas of Track, Signalling, Rolling Stock, Safety, Multi modal integration, station design etc. Stressing on the importance of the project, Mishra stated that this agreement will provide institutional mechanism for mutual cooperation in the field of urban transport especially in implementation of Regional Rapid Transit System (RRTS)project.
National Capital Region Transport Corporation, a Joint Venture of Government of India and State Governments of Uttar Pradesh, Rajasthan, Haryana and Delhi, is mandated to design, construct, operate and maintain rail based Regional Rapid Transit System (RRTS) in the National Capital Region. Three RRTS corridors: Delhi-Meerut Smart Line, Delhi – Panipat Smart Line and Delhi – Alwar Smart Line have been prioritised for implementation in 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, according to a PIB release.
RRTS, first of its kind project in India with design speed of 180 kmph, will use state of the art technologies for track structure, rolling stock and signalling system.

Expertise and experience in India on these technologies for higher speeds being limited, international expertise will be tapped for efficient implementation of project, operation of system and developing capacity in the country. Administrador de Infraestructuras Ferroviarias (ADIF), Spain, State-Owned Railway infrastructure company, has experience of planning, developing, constructing, operating and maintaining high-speed railway and regional rail systems like Cercanias’ in Madrid.

SNCF, a State-owned Railway Company of France, has also expressed willingness to support RRTS projects. Possibility of similar agreement between NCRTC and SNCF was explored during recent visit of SNCF delegation earlier this week.