SC panel permits construction of Delhi-Alwar RRTS project

A Supreme Court-appointed panel has approved construction of the proposed Delhi-Alwar high-speed rail corridor to be built under the Aravalli Biodiversity Park and the extended ridge area, claiming that the project will not be environmentally harmful. A 3.6 km stretch of the corridor is supposed to pass below the extended or morphological ridge in South Delhi, according to the Central Empowered Committee's (CEC) report, which was finalised on Friday. Extended ridge areas have ridge characteristics but are not notified forests, whereas ridge areas are. The capital's lungs are the ridge areas of Delhi, which are essentially extensions of the Aravalli ranges and cover over 7,000 hectares. Without permission from the Ridge Management Board (RRB) and the SC via the CEC, agencies are not permitted to conduct constrictions in the ridge and extended ridge areas. The RRB had previously granted permission to the National Capital Region Transport Corporation (NCRTC), which is building the Regional Rapid Transit System (RRTS) corridor. According to the CEC report, 1.7 km of the proposed 3.6 km stretch will pass beneath the Aravalli Biodiversity Park near Vasant Kunj. The committee informed that the project is in the public interest and that trees will not have to be cut so the proposed rail corridor will run 20 m below ground. The 164 km rapid rail corridor between Delhi and Alwar will be built in three phases, with a mix of elevated tracks and tunnels. Once completed, the corridor is expected to reduce travel time between these locations to 117 minutes, or just under two hours. The 106 km stretch between Delhi and Behror has been completed in the first phase. The RRTS will operate out of Sarai Kale Khan in Delhi, connecting Munirka, Aerocity, and Gurugram, Sotanala, and Rewari on its way to Alwar in Rajasthan passing through 22 stations. The 82 km-long Delhi-Meerut and 103 km-long Delhi-Panipat corridors are the other RRTS projects being built by the NCRTC, which is a Joint Venture (JV) company of the Union government and Delhi, Haryana, Rajasthan, and Uttar Pradesh. A separate petition to stop the Delhi Metro from felling 11,545 trees in the city for its Phase IV expansion project is being looked into by the committee. Image Source Also read: Alstom starts manufacturing trains for Delhi-Meerut RRTS corridor Also read: RRTS Corridor project: NCRTC seeks private player for O&M