Ghaziabad: India’s first high-speed train project, Regional Rapid Transit System (RRTS), being implemented by The National Capital Region transport corporation (NCRTC) brought out, for the first time, the RRTS train to test the trial run for the over-head equipment (OHE). A test run was conducted on Tuesday from the feeding post of the Duhai depot to Ghaziabad city RRTS station.
“It was a unique and first-time experience for all the engineers, technicians, architects, and staff working on the project to successfully test the OHE for the first regional rail in the country. This is a test before the actual speed trials of the RRTS train, which will be conducted with all the integrated systems soon,” said Puneet Vats, chief public relations officer of NCRTC.
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Officials said the RRTS train was taken out from the Duhai depot for the first time and taken to Ghaziabad RRTS station to test the functioning of the OHE. To test the track and traction, the RRTS train was run from Duhai station to Guldhar station at 5kmph and after the functioning of the OHE was found successful, the train proceeded towards Ghaziabad station and returned from the crossover built before the station, said officials.
“During this process, the train was operated manually under the train control management system (TCMS). On the return journey, the train was accelerated to 25kmph to test the OHE, and it first stopped at Guldhar station and then at the Duhai station before it was brought back to the Duhai Depot,” Vats added.
The installation of OHE on the entire 17km priority section in Ghaziabad is in its final stage and the section will be fully charged soon and pave the way for the high-speed trial run, officials added.
“To make RRTS network safe and reliable, all different technical elements are to be tested individually. Once these tests are successful, all its sub-systems such as the rolling stock, OHE, track and telecom/signalling as well as station infrastructure and platform screen doors, will be tested in an integrated manner to check their compatibility and behaviour from the public safety point of view,” said an NCRTC officer.
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WHAT IS THE RRTS PROJECT?
- The RRTS project is worth 30,274 crore and aims to provide high-speed connectivity between Delhi, Ghaziabad and Meerut with trains having a design speed of 180kmph.
- The Duhai depot houses four rapid trains which have arrived from the manufacturing facility in Savli, Gujarat.
- The RRTS project is likely to commence passenger operations by March 2025.
- The entire 82km route has 25 stations with 22 in the jurisdiction of Uttar Pradesh.
- The 17km priority section in Ghaziabad will be country’s first RRTS section and likely start operation by March 2023.
- The 17km section has five stations at Sahibabad, Ghaziabad city, Guldhar, Duhai and Duhai Depot.
