Globally 4th in this category
In yet another milestone for the Delhi Metro, Union Minister for Housing and Urban Affairs Hardeep Singh Puri and Delhi Transport Minister Kailash Gahlot on Thursday flagged off the first driverless train operation on the 59-km Pink Line of Delhi Metro via video conferencing.
“With 97 km of stretch under driverless operations, Delhi Metro is now globally the 4th service provider in that category, just marginally behind Kuala Lumpur. In less than one year, we are opening the second driverless train operation on DMRC network. Delhi Metro can be compared with the best in the world,” Puri said.
“I have been told metro in Kuala Lumpur stands at the third position globally in terms of driverless train operations network at a little over 97 km. With Magenta Line and Pink Line adding to 97 km of stretch under driverless operations for the Delhi Metro which is the fourth globally, just marginally behind the capital of Malaysia,” he added.
The Pink Line, which connects Majlis Park to Shiv Vihar was made functional in 2019, a small stretch between Mayur Vihar pocket-1 and Trilokpuri-Sanjay Lake stations was stuck due to land acquisition and rehabilitation issues. However, due to the Covid-19 pandemic operations of the Delhi Metro were severely affected. That stretch was inaugurated in August this year, making Pink Line the longest single Metro corridor in Delhi, spanning 59 kilometres.
Currently, only the Magenta Line has trains operating without any manual intervention - in UTO (Unattended Train Operation) mode. The driverless train operations on that route - India’s first - were inaugurated by Prime Minister Narendra Modi on December 28 last year.
With the operationalisation of the entire Pink Line “Ring Corridor”, the total metro network in the national Capital reached 390 kilometers with 285 stations. This includes the Noida-Greater Noida Metro Corridor and the Rapid Metro in Gurugram.
