Driverless Metro: Delhi Metro has started driverless train operation (DTO) on the 59-km Pink Line on Thursday. With this, the Delhi Metro became the fourth mass rapid transit system among the networks operating this cutting edge technology.
Delhi Metro officials said that three cities Singapore, Shanghai and Kuala Lumpur are ahead of Delhi in terms of running the driverless train network in the world.
Union Housing and Urban Affairs Minister Hardeep Singh Puri and Delhi Transport Minister Kailash Gehlot on Thursday jointly flagged off the driverless train operation through video conference.
DTO’s network is spread over 97 km
DMRC’s driverless operation network now has a total extension of 97 km with the commissioning after a delay of a few months at DTOs on Majlis Park and Shiv Vihar corridors spread between 38 stations.
With this, Delhi Metro has become the world’s fourth largest network in terms of driverless train network and the only network in India, officials said.
DMRC to be second largest DTO network with Phase IV
DMRC said that after the completion of Phase IV, driverless operations will be available on Pink Line and Magenta Line as well as Aerocity-Tughlakabad Silver Line. With this, DMRC will become the world’s second largest driverless metro network with a corridor of 160 km.
India’s first driverless train operation on Delhi Metro’s Magenta Line was inaugurated by Prime Minister Narendra Modi on 28 December last year.
With the inauguration of the first driverless operation in December, the Delhi Metro “entered an elite league of seven per cent of the world’s metros, which operate a fully automated metro network,” DMRC said in a statement on Thursday.
