From ‘Ganesh’ tempos to Namo Bharat trains, Ghaziabad ushers in new era of mobility
The first Namo Bharat train will roll out for passenger operations on the 17km priority corridor of Rapid Rail Transport System (RRTS) from the Sahibabad and Duhai RRTS stations
Leaving behind the era of ‘jugaad tractor-trolleys’ and polluting ‘Ganesh tempos’, Ghaziabad city has come a long way in the past five decades to usher in a new era of mobility with the launch of state-of-the-art Namo Bharat trains (earlier called RapidX trains) on Saturday.
The first Namo Bharat train will roll out for passenger operations on the 17km priority corridor of Rapid Rail Transport System (RRTS) from the Sahibabad and Duhai RRTS stations, simultaneously, at 6am on October 21.
Ghaziabad city became a district on November 14, 1976, before which it was a tehsil of Meerut district. Back then, the residents recall, the city had limited means of transport even as Ghaziabad emerged as an industrial town.
“There were no major expressways or well-constructed highways for the longest time; only a handful of rickety buses plied from Meerut to Dasna. There was an old taxi stand near Ghanta Ghar from where people hailed shared taxis to go to Delhi or Meerut. The only reliable mass transport medium was the Meerut shuttle train operated by the Indian Railways, which was used by thousands of commuters daily,” said Rajendra Tyagi, a former councillor from Raj Nagar.
The old-timers say that for local commuting, city residents depended on bicycles they rented from shops for 25-50 paise on an hourly basis.
“There were these bigger 10 to 12 seater autos, which had a protruding nose-type front design and so they became locally known as ‘Ganesh’. These vehicles created a lot of noise and pollution. In rural segments, people used ‘jugaad’ trolleys for local commute. In the 1980s, the scenario changed with the advent of Maruti cars and middle class families also got two-wheeler scooters such as Lambretta, Vespa and Bajaj for local commutes. Officers and policemen preferred motorcycles such as Rajdoot, Jawa, and Yezdi, and later the Royal Enfield,” Tyagi said.
In the 1990s, a few Delhi Transport Corporation (DTC) buses started plying from Ghaziabad to ITO and also up to Safdarjung Hospital and that was the extent of intercity commuting option.
“These buses remained jam packed during peak hours. I remember how my clothes would end up dirty with a mix of sweat and pollution by the time I reached ITO by a DTC bus. By the late 1990s, autos became ubiquitous and ferried as many as six to eight people stuffed in one auto, alongside cycle rickshaws,” said Nishant Goel, a Govindpuram resident.
In the past five years, e-rickshaws have started replacing cycle rickshaws. But the first major jump towards speedier mobility came in July 2011, when the city got first its 2.5km stretch of Metro’s Blue Line, which linked commuters to Central Delhi from the two stations of Vaishali and Kaushambi.
After years of deliberations, the second Metro line -- the Red Line -- came on March 8, 2019, with eight stations. One the same day, Prime Minister Narendra Modi also laid the foundation for the RRTS project.
“The coming of the Metro gave much needed relief to residents but the city still lacks metro connectivity to Noida and Central Delhi. The Namo Bharat trains are scripting a new phase in the city’s development and will greatly transform local and intercity travels over the next couple of years,” said colonel TP Tyagi (retired), a resident of Model Town.
“The electric-buses have also arrived but more of them are needed. The agencies must work on further improving last mile and intracity commuting to maximise the reach and benefits of Metro and RRTS,” he said.
The district officials said the city aims to build a strong and reliable public transport comprising e-buses.
“We have 50 e-buses currently running, and 150 more are expected to join the fleet soon. We are trying our best to get these buses as soon as possible for intracity commute,” said Kesri Nandan Chaudhary, regional officer of Uttar Pradesh State Road Transport Corporation.
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