The Delhi Metro Rail Corporation(DMRC) marked a new milestone on Monday,December 28 as Prime Minister Narendra Modi inaugurated via video conferencing India's first driverless train operation on Delhi Metro's Magenta Line,connecting Janakpuri West and Botanical Garden along with the fully operational National Common Mobility Card(NCMC) services on the Airport Express Line.
The driverless trains will be fully automated,which will eliminate the possibility of human error,the government has said,adding that after the start of driverless services on the Magenta Line(Janakpuri West-Botanical Garden),the Pink Line (Majlis Park-Shiv Vihar) of Delhi Metro is expected to have driverless operations by mid-2021.The extension of this technology to the Pink Line will increase the driverless network on the Delhi Metro to around 94 km,which is nearly 9% of Delhi Metro's total network.
These new generation trains will bring DMRC into the elite league of "seven per cent of world's Metro networks" which can operate services without drivers,the Delhi Metro said on Sunday.Initially drivers will be deputed for operating the trains they would be gradually withdrawn to move to Unattended Train Operation(UTO).
In first phase of grades of automation(GoA) 1,the trains will be run by one driver and,in GoA 2 and GoA 3,the driver's role is further reduced to operating doors and taking over in emergencies.Even the starting and halting of trains is automated and then,in the GoA 4 phase,the trains will be operational in complete automated mode.
Speaking at the event ,PM Modi said the inauguration of the first driverless metro train shows how fast the country is moving towards smart systems."First metro in Delhi was started with the efforts of Atal Ji. When our government was formed in 2014,only 5 cities had metro services and today 18 cities have metro rail service.By 2025,we will take this service to more than 25 cities,"the Prime Minister said.
The Prime Minister's Office has said that these innovations will herald a new era of travelling comfort and enhanced mobility.The National Common Mobility Card,which will be fully operationalised on the Airport Express Line,will enable anyone carrying a RuPay-Debit Card issued from any part of the country to travel on the route using it.
This facility will become available on the entire Delhi Metro network by 2022,the PMO said.
The driverless trains will have six coaches.Each coach can accommodate a maximum of 380 passengers,which means 2,280 passengers on each train.It will be equipped with several advanced features such as better regeneration of energy during braking,energy-efficient subsystems like LED lightning and air conditioning systems.They are designed for a maximum speed of 95 kmph and operational speed of 85 kmph,the Delhi Metro department had said.
At present,the Delhi Metro rail service operates on an around 390 km long network with as many as 285 metro stations spanning eleven corridors(including the Noida-Greater Noida corridor).Nearly 60 lakh Delhi Metro train journeys were being conducted on a daily basis during pre-Covid times,DMRC added.
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