Driverless train to begin on Delhi Metro’s Pink Line from today

Driverless train operations on Delhi Metro’s 57-kilometre Pink Line will begin from Thursday. Union urban affairs minister Hardeep Singh Puri and Delhi transport minister Kailash Gahlot will flag the driverless train at 11.30 am via video conferencing.

“Driverless Train Operations on Delhi Metro’s Pink Line (Majlis Park to Shiv Vihar) will be inaugurated on 25th Nov 2021 (Thursday) at 11:30 am via video conferencing,” the Delhi Metro Rail Corporation (DMRC) said in a tweet on Wednesday.

This is the second such train facility to be inaugurated by the Delhi Metro. Last year, Prime Minister Narendra Modi launched the country’s first-ever driverless train on the Magenta Line and launched National Common Mobility Card on the Airport Express Line.

The Prime Minister had also said that metro services will be expanded to over 25 cities by 2025.

Last year, the DMRC officials had said that driverless trains on the Pink Line would begin by mid-2021. However, it got delayed as metro services were affected due to the ongoing coronavirus disease (Covid-19) pandemic.

The Pink Line was made functional in the year 2019. And by August this year, it became the longest operational corridor of the Delhi Metro network after the missing section between Mayur Vihar Pocket 1 and Trilokpuri Sanjay Lake stations was inaugurated.

Currently, the Delhi Metro expands to nearly 392 km with 286 stations including the Noida–Greater Noida Metro Corridor and Rapid Metro, Gurugram.