India is all set to adopt the European Train Control System (ETCS) in mainline railways for the very first time, with the country’s premier regional rapid rail coming up between Delhi and Meerut. French multinational rolling stock manufacturer Alstom won a contract worth €106 million to design, supply, and install the signalling, train control, and telecommunication system for the 82.15 km-long Delhi-Ghaziabad-Meerut regional rapid transit system (RRTS) corridor. The National Capital Region Transport Corporation Ltd. (NCRTC), responsible for executing the RRTS project, awarded the contract to Alstom on January 20, 2021.

According to a statement released by Alstom, the European train control system hybrid level three signalling system will be adopted for the very first time in the country. The Delhi-Meerut semi-high-speed rail line will reduce the travel time between Delhi and Meerut to just 60 minutes, as compared to the current 90-100 minutes, and will run a maximum speed of 160 km per hour. Alstom’s scope of work in the project includes design, supply, installation, testing and commissioning of signalling and train control, supervision, platform screen doors, and telecommunication systems for the corridor.

Meanwhile, the Delhi-Ghaziabad-Meerut rapid rail corridor will consist of modern and indigenous ballastless track, suitable for supporting a high design speed of 180 km per hour and operational speed of 160 km per hour. Out of the 82 km long Delhi-Meerut rapid rail corridor, the 17 km-long Sahibabad-Duhai section has been targeted to be operational by the year 2023.

In the first phase of the regional rapid transit system coming up in the national capital region, the other priority corridors apart from Delhi-Meerut are Delhi-Gurugram-Rewari-Alwar and Delhi-Sonipat-Panipat. The three RRTS corridors will converge at the Sarai Kale Khan station in Delhi. The interoperability of the main corridors will allow seamless commuter movement across corridors.