Greater Noida: Centre returns rapid rail project DPR, seeks technical tweaks

The Yamuna Expressway Industrial Development Authority (Yeida) said on Tuesday that the central government has returned the detailed project report (DPR) of the proposed rapid rail project connecting Ghaziabad with Noida international airport in Jewar, after raising certain issues on the technical front.

The 72km elevated project, to be executed at an estimated ₹20,637 crore, is proposed to provide direct connectivity via Greater Noida, with 22 proposed stations.

The Uttar Pradesh government has now directed the industrial bodies and also the National Capital Region Planning Board to address the technical issues raised by the central government, said officials.

The NCR board will consult all stakeholders and consider tweaking certain aspects of the route, alignment and stations, they said.

“The key issues raised by the Centre pertain to plying different types of trains – metro, light rail and rapid rail -- on the same route (Ghaziabad to Greater Noida). The Union government wants to allow semi high-speed and slow speed trains on the same route. Now proposals for integrating the track with other transit services, such as metro, will be reviewed. Light rail is most likely to be done away with,” said a Yeida official aware of the development, asking not to be named.

The DPR for the RRTS/Metro connectivity to the greenfield airport, submitted in July, 2024, has charted a 72.44km route between Ghaziabad RRTS station and the airport. The corridor is planned to have a total 22 stations (11 RRTS/Metro stations and 11 Metro only stations). There will be provision to add 13 stations in the future as well.

As per the NCRTC DPR, the RRTS/Metro corridor between Ghaziabad and the airport will subsume 10km of Aqua Line metro extension proposed between Char Murti chowk and Knowledge Park 5, resulting in substantial savings.

Also, the proposed pod taxi project, a kind of light rail transit system, which was planned between the airport and Yeida Sector 21/ Film City, will also be subsumed.

However, a month later in September 2024, Yeida board approved a light rail transit system that would link Noida airport with Film City off Yamuna Expressway through a 14km corridor that will be integrated with the RRTS route.

The plan was to have all three services on the same tracks — Metro, RRTS and light rail — with only loops and sections differentiating them.

Metro trains were proposed to run at an interval of 3.5 minutes, rapid rail every seven minutes and light rail every eight minutes.

After the Uttar Pradesh government approved the plan, it was sent to the Union ministry of housing and urban affairs for clearance.

“However, now a reassessment will be done. Along with this, spacing of stations and alignment will also be reviewed.Officials reiterated that against the initial plan to build the RRTS corridor in two phases —Ghaziabad to Ecotech 6; and from Ecotech 6 to Jewar, it will be constructed as a single, unified project,” said the same official quoted above.