RapidX, the country’s first regional semi-high-speed railway, has been renamed NaMo Bharat, a day before Prime Minister Narendra Modi is set to inaugurate the train.
The Prime Minister’s Office (PMO) on Wednesday said he will launch a RapidX train connecting Sahibabad and Duhai Depot stations to mark the launch of RRTS in India.
It is a ‘transformational’ regional development initiative, designed to provide high-speed trains every 15 minutes for inter-city commuting, increasing to a frequency of every five minutes as required, the PMO said.
The Congress took a swipe at Prime Minister Modi over the name change.
“After Namo Stadium, Namo is now training. There is simply no limit to his self-obsession,” Congress General Secretary Jairam Ramesh said in a post on X.
A cricket stadium in Ahmedabad has been named after Prime Minister Modi.
The 17 km priority section of the Delhi-Ghaziabad-Meerut RRTS Corridor is expected to open for passengers on October 21, a day after its inauguration.
The priority section, between Sahibabad and Duhai Depot, has five stations: Sahibabad, Ghaziabad, Guldhar, Duhai and Duhai Depot.
CCTV cameras, an emergency door opening mechanism and a button to communicate with a train driver are among the safety features of this train.
Trains can even travel up to 160 kmph on this corridor, but the operational speed will be lower, officials say.
The Delhi-Ghaziabad-Meerut corridor is being developed at a cost of over Rs 30,000 crore and will connect Delhi to Meerut with a travel time of less than an hour through the urban centers of Ghaziabad, Muradnagar and Modinagar, the PMO said.
The entire 82.15 km Delhi-Ghaziabad-Meerut RRTS is expected to be operational by June 2025.
