In a big surprise for Metro travellers in Delhi, the Delhi Metro's first set of driverless trains is set to begin operating from October this year. The Magenta Line from Janakpuri West to Botanical Garden, which will be thrown partially open to the public in October this year, will be the first to roll out the driverless trains from October 2017, Delhi Metro Rail Corporation (DMRC) told The Times of India.
A DMRC spokesperson said trial runs on two sections of the corridor of phase III, between Kalkaji and Botanical Garden (13 km) and Janakpuri West to Terminal 1 - IGI Airport Metro station (10 km) are in progress. The line is scheduled to be opened in stages between October 2017 and March 2018, the spokesperson said. DMRC plans to complete the phase -III expansion of its network with the commissioning of Pink Line (Majlis Park - Shiv Vihar) by March 2018 too.
The first trial run on the Pink Line between the Shakurpur and Mayapuri Metro stations was done last week. Driverless trains will be initially operated on the Magenta and Pink Lines.
The highly automated driverless trains will run on the unattended train operation (UTO) mode. The DMRC will slowly shift to the UTO mode after initially operating these trains with drivers, the TOI report said. Trial runs on the Kalindi Kunj and Kalkaji Mandir section of the Magenta Line have been in progress since August 2016.
Sometime later, they were followed soon by trial runs on the Botanical Garden and Kalkaji Mandir section. The Magenta Line will connect West Delhi to Noida in under an hour through a direct corridor.
It will also bring many south Delhi areas on the metro map. Due to the presence of interchange stations at Hauz Khas, Kalkaji Mandir and Botanical Garden, the Magenta Line would also largely cut the travel time between Gurgaon, Faridabad and Noida.
