Delhi professionals are moving back to Meerut and Karnal, thanks to 160 kmph Namo Bharat trains

One of the most encouraging trends emerging from the Delhi-Meerut RRTS corridor is a demographic shift, according to Shalabh Goel, managing director of the National Capital Region Transport Corporation. Professionals and students are relocating from Delhi to their native cities across the NCR while maintaining Delhi-based employment or continuing their studies in the capital, he told TOI.

‘For many, this means affordable housing choices, more time with family and an improved quality of life,’ Goel said. The shift has been enabled by Namo Bharat trains, which complete the Delhi-Meerut journey in under an hour at maximum speeds of 160 kmph, making daily commuting from hometowns like Meerut a realistic option instead of requiring relocation to Delhi.

Since the 80-kilometre corridor’s full inauguration in February 2026, ridership has grown steadily, with around one lakh passengers travelling daily and cumulative ridership crossing about 3.5 crore passenger journeys. Goel said a public transport system succeeds only when people choose it over private vehicles, which NCRTC has tried to encourage by integrating Namo Bharat stations with Indian Railways, metro systems, ISBTs and city bus services.

Jagannarayan Padmanabhan, senior director and global head-consulting at Crisil Intelligence, said such corridors expand the labour market by letting people commute from satellite cities without relocating, while reducing congestion on highways such as NH-9, NH-44 and the Delhi-Gurugram Expressway.

Several more RRTS corridors are planned, including routes to Panipat-Karnal, Gurgaon-Bawal and Ghaziabad-Jewar, extending the same commuting model to more cities around Delhi-NCR in the coming years.