look news india
A very wonderful and big news has come for lakhs of working people and common passengers traveling on the Delhi-Ghaziabad-Meerut corridor. In view of the ever increasing record number of passengers on the Namo Bharat Rapid Rail network, the National Capital Region Transport Corporation (NCRTC) has prepared a mega action plan for the future. In an exclusive interview to PTI, NCRTC Managing Director (MD) Shalabh Goyal has revealed that currently more than 1 lakh passengers are traveling on the Namo Bharat Corridor every day, which is a big achievement.
Shalabh Goyal said that at present trains are running on the corridor at a gap of about 10 minutes. But in the coming days, according to the huge demand and needs of the passengers, this waiting time and frequency can be reduced to just 3 minutes. This entire rapid rail corridor has been designed in such an advanced manner that there is full scope for increasing the capacity and number of trains as per future requirements.
If needed, Namo Bharat train will be available every 3 minutes, 18 extra trips increased
NCRTC MD Shalabh Goyal said that his team continuously closely assesses the passenger movement and demand on the entire corridor and based on that, major changes are made in the operational arrangements. He clarified that at present the interval of 10 minutes is quite comfortable for the passengers, but as the crowd increases in future, the system has full flexibility to increase the frequency of these trains to 3 minutes. Keeping in mind the increasing demand of passengers, the Corporation has recently started 18 extra trips during peak hours between Sarai Kale Khan and Meerut South, thereby saving time of passengers.
Till now 3.5 crore passengers have traveled, 100% ‘Make in India’ trains
While sharing the ridership figures, MD said that the confidence of passengers on this semi-high-speed network is continuously increasing. Every day around 1 lakh passengers are reaching their destination through this modern network. Since the inception of this corridor, a record 3.5 crore passengers have traveled through Namo Bharat. Another point of pride is that 100 per cent of Namo Bharat’s trainsets are completely made in India, in Savli, Gujarat, a great example of Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s ‘Make in India’ vision.
Passengers increased by 30% as soon as travellator was installed in Sarai Kale Khan, multimodal connectivity changed the style.
The main focus of NCRTC has been to directly integrate NaMo Bharat stations with other modes of public transport such as Indian Railways, Delhi Metro system, ISBT and city bus services. After the commissioning of the foot over bridge equipped with state-of-the-art Travellator connecting Sarai Kale Khan Namo Bharat Station to Hazrat Nizamuddin Railway Station in May 2026, a bumper jump of about 30 percent has been seen in the number of passengers here.
Similarly, New Ashok Nagar and Ghaziabad Namo Bharat stations have also been directly connected with the metro stations through special foot over bridges. Anand Vihar station offers the best interchange facilities for Railways, ISBT, Delhi Metro and buses at one place. These efforts have reduced pedestrian traffic on busy roads and provided a safe and long-term solution to traffic jams. Stations with such multimodal connectivity have a major contribution of about 40 per cent to the total ridership of the corridor.
Use of the world’s first most advanced signaling technology
Even in the matter of technology, Namo India has proved its mettle across the world. NCRTC has used many world-class technologies for the first time in this corridor. In this, ‘ETCS Level 2 Hybrid Level 3’ signaling system has been successfully implemented on LTE radio signaling technology for the first time in the history of global rail network. It is fully suited to Indian conditions and is based on best-in-class standards. On the basis of this excellent technical experience, NCRTC is now fully prepared to contribute to such big infrastructure projects in the country as well as abroad.