Updated on June 5, 2015: On Thursday, Delhi Metro finally received its first driver-less train. The train has been manufactured in at Changwan in South Korea and arrived at the Mundhra port in Gujarat by sea. Later on, the train was brought to Delhi by road.
South Korea will provide India with 20 six-coach trains by the end of this year and 61 trains will be manufactured at the Bharat Earth Movers Limited (BEML) facility in Bengaluru. These trains will ply on the upcoming Majlish Park-Shiv Vihar route (Line 7, 58.596 km) and the Janakpuri West-Botanical Garden route (Line 8, 38.235 km). Both these corridors are expected to be functional by the end of 2016.
Each of these trains will be able to accommodate a total of 2,280 passengers, which is 240 more than the regular six-coach trains. This is because driver-less metro trains do not require a driver's cabin and hence more passengers can be accommodated. In addition to this, CCTV cameras will be installed inside as well as outside the train. Images from these cameras will be directly accessible to the control center.
Updated on April 20, 2015: Driver-less Delhi Metro trains are about to become a reality. As a part of its Phase III expansion project, authorities are going to introduce driver-less metro trains on two upcoming lines. Upgraded new-generation coaches will be introduced on the 58-km-long Mukundpur-Shiv Vihar corridor, along with the 34-km-long Janakpuri (West) - Botanical Garden corridor.
In addition to this, the frequency of trains will also increase as the time-gap between two trains will be reduced by almost 90 seconds. The new Communication Based Train Control (CTBC) will assist in improving the frequency of trains. This will be of great benefit to commuters travelling on this route.
As unattended metro trains do not require a cabin, these new trains will be able to carry up to 240 commuters more in six coaches. Moreover, Platform Screen Doors will be installed across 68 stations, to provide better safety and to prevent suicide attempts. Currently, the technology is being installed on Line 7 and 8 where entire lengths of the corridors are being laid down. But the technology won’t be made available on other upcoming lines of Phase III as they are just extensions of lines which already exist.
More than 60% of work has been completed on these lines. Also, these trains will be energy efficient. The trains will be 10 per cent more energy efficient due to improved design features, energy regeneration during braking, and other subsystems like LED lighting. Simply speaking, the new metro trains will be more eco-friendly and commuter-friendly than the existing ones.
(Featured Image Credits: bombardier.com)
