A day after Delhi Metro Rail Corporation (DMRC) started safety trials on the ITO-Kashmere Gate stretch of the Violet line, it extended its trial runs on the upcoming Janakpuri West — Botanical Garden corridor from Okhla Vihar till Kalkaji Mandir in southern Delhi.

With the beginning of trial runs on this section, now trials are in progress on a 9.5 kilometre stretch from Kalindi Kunj till Kalkaji Mandir. Earlier in June, initial trial runs had started between Kalindi Kunj and Okhla Vihar stations of this corridor.

“Delhi Metro’s new UTO (Unattended Train Operations) enabled trains will operate on this corridor. The new trains, with extremely high levels of automation, will now undergo rigorous trials between these stations to ensure that they are ready for smooth operations after the commissioning of the corridor. Initially, train operators will run the trains, but gradually, driverless operations (on the UTO mode) will be possible,” said a metro official.

The section from Kalindi Kunj till Kalkaji Mandir consists of seven elevated stations - Kalindi Kunj, Jasola Vihar Shaheen Bagh, Okhla Vihar, Jamia Millia Islamia, Sukhdev Vihar, Okhla NSIC and Kalkaji Mandir. “Civil work on all stations is complete and finishing activities are in progress. Gradually, the trial runs will be expanded to the other parts of the entire corridor,” metro officials said.

During the trials, the interface of the Metro train will be checked to ensure that there is no physical infringement with civil infrastructure during the movement of the train on the track and also testing of various subsystems of coaches shall be done. later on, in stages, the new signalling technology to be implemented on this corridor and Communication Based Train Control (CBTC) will also undergo rigorous testing.