Driverless train ops begin on Pink Line; Delhi Metro 4th globally in DTO network

New Delhi: Driverless train operations (DTO) started on Thursday on 59-km Pink Line of the Delhi Metro, putting the mass rapid transit system on fourth position globally among the networks which operate this cutting-edge technology. The top three cities in the world in terms of driverless train network are — Singapore (first), Shanghai (second) and Kuala Lumpur (third), DMRC officials said.

Union Minister for Housing and Urban Affairs Hardeep Singh Puri and Delhi Transport Minister Kailash Gahlot on Thursday jointly flagged off the driverless train operations via video conference. With DTO commencing on the Majlis Park-Shiv Vihar corridor (spanning 38 stations), albeit after a few months delay, the total stretch of the DMRC's network, which is under driverless operations, now stands at close to 97 km.

With this, the Delhi Metro in terms of driverless train network has grown to become the "fourth largest in the world" and it is the only DTO network in India, the officials said. After the completion of Phase-IV work, when driverless operations will be available on the extensions of the Pink Line and Magenta Line, as well as on the Aerocity-Tughalakabad Silver line, "The DMRC shall become the world's second largest driverless metro network with 160 km of DTO-equipped corridors," the DMRC said.

India's first-ever driverless train operations on the Delhi Metro's Magenta Line was inaugurated on December 28 last year by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, who said that his government, unlike its predecessors, had taken growing urbanisation as an opportunity and asserted that metro train services would be extended

to 25 cities by 2025 from the current 18.