The Municipal Corporation of Gurugram (GMC) has accelerated preparations for the rollout of the Delhi-Alwar rapid railway, which will pass through the city and is expected to significantly boost connectivity in this part of the National Capital Region (NCR).
While the Regional Rapid Transit System (RRTS) corridor connecting Delhi with Gurgaon and Rajasthan still awaits final clearance from the central government, the GMC in its sitting on Monday (May 11) approved the transfer of 0.12 hectare (1,200 sq m) of land for a casting yard for the project.
The intention, officials said, is to speed up readiness to begin construction work as soon as the approval for the 164-km corridor, one of the three corridors planned in Phase 1 of the Namo Bharat semi-high-speed RRTS rail service for the NCR, comes through.
Shalabh Goel, managing director of the National Capital Region Transport Corporation (NCRTC), the agency responsible for executing the Namo Bharat project, had told The Indian Express in an interview in February that both the Delhi-Alwar and Delhi-Karnal corridors were “under consideration at a very senior level, and [were] expected to get approved this financial year (2025-26)”.
The other two Namo Bharat RRTS corridors planned in Phase 1 of the project are Delhi-Panipat and Delhi-Meerut. (Representational Photo)
A casting yard is a temporary facility set up to manufacture and cure specialised concrete components for large infrastructure projects before being transported to the construction site. Casting yards for elevated metro and high-speed rail systems typically manufacture components such as U-girders, I-girders, pier caps, and tunnel segments.
The land for the Delhi-Alwar RRTS casting yard has been identified in Dundahera village adjacent to Gurgaon’s Sector 21 close to the Delhi-Haryana border, and will be transferred to the NCRTC for five years, pending final approval from the Haryana Urban Local Bodies Department, officials said.
The proposal introduced by the Town Planning Branch of the MCG, was passed at the sixth general house meeting of the civic body held at the Haryana Institute of Public Administration (HIPA) at Sector 18.
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According to the agenda tabled in the House, the NCRTC had submitted formal requests for the land parcel on November 3, 2025, and February 23, 2026. Subsequently, the MCG’s Revenue Branch confirmed on February 25 that the land, measuring 2 kanal 15 marla and situated in khasra number 20/17/2 of Dundahera village, was under its direct ownership.
The transfer of the land had been previously entangled in litigation, but judicial interventions recently cleared the way for the project. On January 23, the Punjab and Haryana High Court decided the case in MCG’s favour, and on February 9, the Supreme Court ruled that the State of Haryana and other respondents were at liberty to utilise the land specifically for the execution of the “SKK-Dharuhera RRTC Corridor Project” connecting Sarai Kale Khan in Delhi to Dharuhera in Haryana, the House was told.
The move towards the handover had gathered momentum following a high-level meeting chaired by the Haryana chief secretary on January 9, 2025. During the review, stringent instructions were issued to the civic bodies.
“The Commissioners of the Municipal Corporations of Manesar and Gurugram were instructed to initiate the immediate handover of available land to NCRTC,” according to the minutes of the meeting. Officials were directed to “ensure that no procedural delays occur and to coordinate directly with the Directorate of Urban Local Bodies (DULB) to expedite the process”.
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NCRTC spokesperson Puneet Vats said the casting yard will be used as a site for precasting construction work for both the underground and elevated sections of the corridor, officially known as the Delhi-Gurugram-SNB-Alwar corridor. ‘SNB’ refers to Shahjahanpur-Neemrana-Behror.
“We use the yards to precast the work, and the current approval once it comes will mean the site can be readied on time once the sanction and tender processes begin. As of now, the corridor is still awaiting Central sanction, but we try to keep the stages of different developmental work associated with the project ready before time,” Vats said.
The other two Namo Bharat RRTS corridors planned in Phase 1 of the project are Delhi-Panipat and Delhi-Meerut.
The Delhi-Alwar rapid rail corridor will have a mix of elevated tracks and tunnels, and is projected to reduce the travel time between these places to 117 minutes. The project will be implemented in three phases, and in the first phase, work is planned to be taken up on the 106-km Delhi-Neemrana stretch.
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The RRTS will have its Delhi base at Sarai Kale Khan, and trains will move through Munirka, Aerocity, Gurgaon, Sotanala, and Rewari to Alwar, stopping at a total 22 stations.
