Following the successful launch of India’s first-ever fully automated driverless train service on one of its 11 corridors a few days earlier, the Delhi Metro Rail Corp. (DMRC) is now gearing up to launch it in another by the second half of this year. “After starting driverless services on the 37 km long Magenta Line (Janakpuri West-Botanical Garden), another major corridor of the Delhi Metro, the 59 km long Pink Line (Majlis Park-Shiv Vihar) will also have driverless operations by the mid of 2021. #MetroRevolution,” DMRC informed through its official Twitter handle. Pink Line services of the country’s largest metro network operate in a circle around the busy Inner Ring Road of the national capital. The first driverless train service was inaugurated by Prime Minister Narendra Modi on DMRC’s Magenta Line via video conferencing in the presence of Housing and Urban Affairs & Civil Aviation, Hardeep Singh Puri and Delhi Chief Minister, Arvind Kejriwal on December 28. The online ceremony was also attended by senior representatives of the central and state governments, the Ambassador of Japan to India, Satoshi Suzuki and officials from Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA). “In a momentous day for the Metro operations in the country, we took a massive leap towards futuristic technology when PM Sh @narendramodi Ji inaugurated unmanned operation between Janakpuri West to Botanical Garden on Delhi Metro’s Magenta Line,” Puri later wrote on his official Twitter handle. With the launch of the fully automated driverless train operations (DTO), the country has joined the league of 16 countries currently offering this facility in their metro systems. “The fully automated trains will reduce human intervention in operations and offer more reliability and safety for the commuters. This system also brings more flexibility to trains in operation. As a result, the number of trains in service can be regulated based on demand dynamically without any dependence on the availability of crew,” a DMRC spokesperson told INFRASTRUCTURE TODAY. Since these trains operate on communication-based train control or signalling system, they can be run with a headway 90-second headway to provide more carrying capacity.   In the initial months, the train operator will be present on the train to reassure passengers. The advanced level of diagnostic features in the DTO will help DMRC to move from conventional time-based maintenance to condition-based maintenance. This will effectively help reduce maintenance downtime of trains.  In the last couple of years, DMRC had been conducting DTO trials during non-revenue hours. Meanwhile, other metro systems in the country are also looking at rolling out the technology on their networks. The Bengaluru Metro Rail Corporation Ltd (BMRCL) or Namma Metro is already working with Siemens in this regard for the second phase of its expansion. The prime minister also unveiled the National Common Mobility Card (NCMC) on the 23 km long Airport Express Line (New Delhi to Dwarka Sector 21) at the launch of the driverless train on the Magenta Line. The service enables passengers from any part of the country travelling on DMRC’s Airport Express Line to use their NCMC compliant RuPay debit card for seamless travel. DMRC’s system will be able to accept transactions from 23 banks through the debit card issued by them. DMRC is a joint venture between the Central Government and Delhi State Government. Commencing operations in 2002, DMRC today operates a 390 km long network with 285 stations. - MANISH PANT