Orbital rail set to meet rapid rail corridor at Duhai

Ghaziabad: The Eastern Orbital Rail Corridor (EORC) is likely to have an interchange at Duhai Namo Bharat station.A feasibility report prepared by the Haryana Rail Infrastructure Development Corporation (HRIDC), which is executing the project, has been submitted to the Ghaziabad Development Authority (GDA), the nodal agency for the project, and will now be examined at the state level before a formal nod is sought to commission a detailed project report.EORC is proposed to be connected with Duhai station via a 4km, 24-metre-high bridge, a GDA official said. “GDA’s technical team is going through the report to ensure land acquisition and other logistical issues before the draft is sent to the state govt,” the official added.Last April, UP approved Haryana’s proposal to build the rail corridor beyond the Eastern Peripheral Expressway (EPE) and follow an elliptical route to allow vehicles from UP to bypass Delhi for entering Haryana and beyond.The project is proposed to be Delhi’s third ring road and has been designed to facilitate passenger and freight movement within NCR without adding to the capital’s traffic or pollution. The EORC is proposed to connect Palwal in Haryana to Sonepat via Ghaziabad, Noida and Baghpat in UP.According to the draft, a 59km section of the 135km orbital rail project will fall in Ghaziabad. EORC is proposed to have nine stations in UP—New Kekhra Road, Badagaon, Manauli, Dasna, Sukhanapur, Rajatpur, Shamshudinpur, Bisaich and Gunupura.It will offer connectivity between NH-1, Faridabad and Sikri through Ghaziabad and Noida on the eastern side of NCR. The Western Peripheral Expressway from Kundli will link Faridabad, Palwal and Manesar. Significant progress was made on the orbital rail project in Haryana.The orbital rail is a part of the NCR Planning Board’s 2041 regional plan. Officials said the need to expedite the project is necessary if the region is to emerge as a logistics hub in the future.As per projection, five urban clusters in the NCR—Gurgaon-Manesar, Faridabad-Ballabgarh, Meerut, Ghaziabad and Noida-Greater Noida-Kasna—will become megacities by 2032.