New Delhi: Union Minister Hardeep Singh Puri and Delhi Transport & Environment minister Kailash Gahlot flagged off the driverless metro on 59-km Pink Line of the Delhi Metro on Thursday, putting the mass rapid transit system on the fourth position globally among the networks which operate this cutting-edge technology.
Senior officials including Delhi Metro Rail Corporation(DMRC) Managing Director Dr. Mangu Singh were also present at the inaugural event.
Speaking on the occasion Puri said, "when it comes to driverless metro, India stands at the fourth place, while the capital city of Malaysia, Kuala Lumpur stand at third place but their driverless metro is only a kilometer more than India. The way our country is using technologies, it will soon be few notches up. This technology was first used on the Magenta Line in December 2020. DMRC has added 59 km of network in less than a year. It is a world-class system."
While Delhi Transport Minister Kailash Gehlot said that with the driverless metro services in Delhi, the DMRC has made a different identity across the world. Despite the Covid pandemic, DMRC has made it possible to run the driverless metro on the Delhi pink line in such a short period of time. People need to understand that driverless metro is safer than being driven by a person. The possibility of human error has been completely eliminated."
Speaking on the occasion, DMRC Managing Director Dr Mangu Singh applauded the metro employees saying that this day is the result of their extreme efforts. Singh said, "This line has 38 metro stations and it has been transformed into the driverless network in just 11 months. Driverless Metro will not only save time but will also save energy. If required, this metro train can run at an interval of 90 seconds."
India's first-ever driverless train operations on the Delhi Metro's Magenta Line was inaugurated on December 28 last year by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, who said that his government, unlike its predecessors, had taken growing urbanisation as an opportunity and asserted that metro train services would be extended to 25 cities by 2025 from the current 18.
Read: Driverless train operations on Delhi metro's Pink Line to commence on Nov 25
