Delhi: DMRC likely to flag off its first driverless train on Christmas Day

The move to introduce driverless trains comes as a step towards switching to the unattended train operations (UTO) mode, using the hi-tech signalling technology called the communication based train control (CBTC).

The Delhi Metro Rail Corporation (DMRC) is likely to run driverless trains from December-end, a senior official in the ministry of housing and urban affairs (MoHUA) said, and the first driverless train is likely to be operated on the Magenta Line, between Janakpuri West and Botanical Garden (Noida).

The Magenta Line connects the Janakpuri West station in Delhi to Botanical Garden in Noida (Ajay Aggarwal/HT File Photo)

A senior ministry official, aware of the development, said efforts are being made to start the new system on December 25, when DMRC will complete 18 years of operations in the national capital, and get Prime Minister Narendra Modi to flag off the first driverless train.

To allow driverless train operations (DTO), the ministry official said, an amendment in the Metro Railways General Rules, 2015, will be made.

The move to introduce driverless trains comes as a step towards switching to the unattended train operations (UTO) mode, using the hi-tech signalling technology called the communication based train control (CBTC).

According to DMRC officials, the driverless train technology is already in use in trains running on Pink Line (Majlis Park-Shiv Vihar) and Magenta Line (Botanical Garden-Janakpuri West), but a driver is present on each train for the time being-- the train is manually started by the driver and thereon its runs on the CBTC signalling system.

A senior DMRC official, on the condition of anonymity, said driverless technology was introduced on the Magenta Line and the Pink Line in 2017, but until now, the Metro was conducting rigorous trials to ensure that trains could safely switch over to driverless operations.

Officials explained that the driverless train technology has set standards for automation called grades of automation (GoA). In GoA 1, trains are run by one driver and, in GoA 2 and GoA 3, the role of the driver is reduced to operating doors and for taking over in case of emergencies -- the starting and halting of trains is automated. Finally, in the GoA 4, trains are set on a completely unattended train operations mode.

“The progression to remove human intervention entirely is done in a phased manner. After isolated trials at first, we have of late been conducting trials during the non-peak hours. The idea is to gain complete public confidence in the system,” the DMRC official said.

The official said the present Metro rules do not have the provision of operating driverless trains and to inaugurate this new system, the Union ministry of housing and urban affairs will have to modify the existing rules.

The DMRC had initially set a tentative deadline for operations, under GoA 3, for May this year, but these plans were delayed due to the Covid-19 lockdown.