An aerial view of the magenta line of the Delhi metro | Courtesy: DMRC Twitter
New Delhi: In a technological leap, Prime Minister Narendra Modi on December 28 (Monday) will signal India’s first fully automated driverless train service. The driverless train will be launched on the 37-kilometer Magenta Line of the Delhi Metro that connects Janakpuri West in Delhi with the Botanical Garden in Noida, Uttar Pradesh.
The Delhi Metro Rail Corporation (DMRC) made this announcement on Thursday evening.
In addition, the PM will also launch a fully functioning National Common Mobility Card (NCMC) on the same day to travel on the Airport Express Line of the Delhi Metro, the DMRC said.
The DMRC will gift the driverless train service to residents of the national capital three days after it completes 18 years of operation on December 25. It was on December 25, 2002 when the then Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee inaugurated the first Delhi Metro. service in the capital.
The Delhi Metro was India’s first modern metro service at the time, in addition to the existing Calcutta Metro, whose services had started on October 24, 1984.
The Ministry of Housing and Urbanism has modified the General Norms of the Metro Railways, 2015, to allow the operations of trains without a driver.
Driverless trains will be made a reality using high-tech signaling technology known as communication-based train control (CBTC).
The DMRC is already using driverless train technology on trains operating on the Magenta Line (Janakpuri West-Botanical Garden) and Pink Line (Majlis Park-Shiv Vihar). However, these trains are currently operated with a driver present in the cabin.
After the December 28 launch, it will not be necessary for a driver to be present in the cabin for the train to start and run.
Until now, the Delhi Metro was in the process of conducting tests to ensure that trains can switch to driverless operations smoothly and safely.
