The $4BN Railway Reshaping Delhi

this is delhi capital of india one of the largest cities in the world and a place that's still growing fast 32 million people live in this urban area and the un projects that figure could rise to almost 40 million by the end of the decade it's also a nightmare to navigate and aside from the new metro system public transport is far from adequate on top of that air quality has reached critical levels and roads are a breaking point the help's now at hand thanks to the new regional rapid transit system a mega project that could finally give this huge city the infrastructure it desperately needs [Music] delhi's been named the world's most polluted city for three years in a row reaching record levels in 2021 now there are several reasons for this like the mass burning of crop stubble after the annual harvest and india's reliance on coal power but one major problem is extreme traffic there are around 10 million vehicles in delhi and hundreds of thousands pass through key intersections each day congestion is virtually non-stop as long as road travel is the only suitable way to get in and out of the city there's not much that can be done about the traffic issue in 2002 delhi's metro system opened and transformed how people get around the city but it only goes so far and it doesn't serve the millions of people in the area around the capital all trying to commute in thanks to confusing design choices when they were constructed in the 1970s the ring and suburban train networks are heavily underused and have needed to be upgraded for decades so if you want to head deeper into the ncr that's the national capital region then a decent train service has never really been an option but that's all set to change construction is underway on a new regional rapid transit system or rrts which will connect central delhi to cities and districts around the ncr it involves building three semi-high-speed rail lines which run from a massive new station at the heart of the capital into the neighboring states of uttar pradesh haryana and rajasthan the first of these lines an 82 kilometer corridor heading north east to gaziabad and me root is now in full swing it's being implemented by the national capital region transport corporation and we'll see these shiny new trains from alstom manufactured in india reaching speeds up to 180 kilometers per hour and that'll make it around three times faster than the metro and the stations are further apart so there's less stopping rrts is for traveling longer distances quicker passengers will get from one end of the route to the other in around 55 minutes a journey that takes about an hour and a half by road and that's without traffic [Music] some 800 000 people are expected to use it every day a figure that's sure to go into the millions once the other lines are operational overall 16 rrts stations are being built most of them elevated as well as depots and underground stations that will integrate with the new me route metro the route will pass through some of the most densely populated parts of the city also crossing the yamuna river by building most of the line and stations on single piers above ground at heights up to 17 meters less floor space is needed and it's easier to work around existing structures roads and other obstacles according to the ncrtc construction is progressing faster than with any other infrastructure projects in india's history a 17 kilometer priority stretch between sahih babad and duhai is expected to be operational from 2023 and could be finished quicker with triarons set to begin from mid-2022 there's a 2025 target completion date for the entire corridor and the whole thing is estimated to cost around 4 billion us dollars works also due to start soon on the 12 kilometers of new underground sections four of which are going to be built below delhi itself requiring the use of eight tunnel boring machines although indian contractors are handling most of the construction one tunnel is being built by a chinese firm the shanghai tunnel engineering company news of that deal wasn't entirely well received it was announced in early 2021 especially following clashes between india and china over disputed territories in the previous year but because the project's being part funded by the asian development bank which china is also a member of it was able to submit the winning bit there's a lot going on then and we haven't even talked about what's arguably the highlight of the whole scheme the place where everything will interconnect all three of the lines being built in phase one will radiate from here what's soon to become delhi's largest transport hub the new sarika lakhan station will act as the main interchange between rrts services the metro and the bus network having a location where multiple transport systems all join together is something delhi's never really had to catch a bus having just got off the metro for example lots of travelers have to take long walks or rickshaw rides to make their next connection but with the new hub that journey can be reduced to just a few steps across the station when it's all done the plans to follow up with five more lines stretching the network even further into the ncr if that's accomplished then delhi's new rail system will offer a quicker more convenient means of transport for millions of people in and around the city it'll be far cleaner than road travel too one study in 2019 predicted that just the delhi to may route line would take around a hundred 000 vehicles off the road now that might not sound like much from that 10 million but when the whole network's up and running you can expect that figure to rise and that's going to be crucial for tackling those pollution levels it's estimated the new system will reduce co2 emissions in the city by 250 000 tons a year for too long the people of delhi and the ncr have been missing an effective transport system one that would accompany the new metro now it looks like they could be getting one of course it won't solve everything and it will take more than this to fix both the traffic and pollution problems that delhi is facing but it's a good start and if it does go on to become the world's biggest mega city having a fast and efficient railway to match its rapid growth is going to be more essential than ever this video was powered by bluebeam you can learn more about that at the link below and as always if you enjoyed this video and you want to get more from the definitive video channel for construction subscribe to the b1m

Channel: The B1M

Views: 2,061,007

Keywords: B1M, TheB1M, Construction, architecture, engineering, The B1M, Fred Mills, building, delhi, india, bluebeam, procore, autodesk, infrastructure, rail, railway, design, new delhi, asia, RRTS, Delhi NCRTC, elevated railway, metro, megaprojects, subway, meerut

Id: tc355CBeeX0

Length: 6min 47sec (407 seconds)

Published: Wed Mar 09 2022