Delhi Metro conducts trial run of country’s first driverless train

In Indian Affairs
May 18, 2016

The Delhi Metro Rail Corporation (DMRC) has conducted the trial run of the country’s first ever Metro train equipped to run in the ‘Unattended Train Operation’ or driverless mode. The train was ceremonially flagged off by Union Minister for Urban Development M. Venkaiah Naidu and Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal. The inaugural train moved out from the Mukundpur depot and travelled up to the Majlis Park Metro stationof the Majlis Park – Shiv Vihar Metro corridor of Phase 3 (Pink Line).

The new trains, with extremely high levels of automation, will now undergo rigorous trials to ensurethat they are ready for smooth operations after the commissioning of the new corridors. In the driverless mode, the train operations can be remotely controlled, including starting and stopping, acceleration and braking, operation of doors and handling of emergencies, all of which are fully automated without any onboard staff.

There will be two-way communication between Operation Control Centre (OCC) and train, live streaming from inside car CCTV system to OCC and vice versa, Obstruction Deflection Device (ODD) to push away small obstructions on track to avoid derailment and additional two front-facing cameras and one detrainment camera. In addition, the response of the train at different speeds, braking of the train and the interconnection with the OCC will also be monitored during the trials. The behaviour of the track system and the Over Head Electrification (OHE) will be checked repeatedly.