Railway infrastructure around Delhi got a major boost in the 2018 budget, with many hundreds of crores in funding across two projects – the Regional Rapid Transit System (RRTS) and the Delhi Metro.

The RRTS is a series of rail corridors that connect the central sections of the city of Delhi to its neighbouring National Capital Region (NCR) and some parts of the neighbouring states of Haryana, Uttar Pradesh and Rajasthan. The National Capital Region Transport Corporation (NCRTC) is the entity implementing the high-speed regional rail system.

The project is currently in its inception stage but received a shot in the arm when the Centre allocated Rs 659 crore for Phase 1 of the project in the Union Budget.

In context, just last year, a measly Rs 0.01 crore was allocated to the project.

So what is being funded in Phase 1? This phase of the project consists of three corridors –

• Delhi-Ghaziabad-Meerut (92.6 km).
• Delhi-Gurugram-Rewari-Alwar (180 km).
• Delhi-Sonipat-Panipat (111 km).

According to an NCRTC spokesperson, the first to be executed will be the Delhi-Ghaziabad-Meerut corridor, with plans that hope to see trains covering the New Delhi-Meerut distance in less than an hour.

Meanwhile, the Delhi Metro Rail Corporation (DMRC) got a Rs 50 crore grant for further expansion in the NCR. This amount will be disbursed for two projects –

• Noida Sector 32 to Electronic City
• Dilshad Garden to New Bus Adda (Ghaziabad).

This is apart from the total fund allocated for all Metro projects in the country — Rs. 14,314.60 crore, according to DMRC sources, quoted.

The Delhi Metro’s Phase 3 is already complete, and Phase 4 is yet to be approved by the Government and the Centre. The approval of Phase 4, will be followed by the disbursal of funds.