PM Modi inaugurates India's first driverless train for Delhi Metro
On Monday, Prime Minister Narendra Modi flagged off India's first driverless train that will be functional on the 37-km-long Magenta Line of the expansive Delhi Metro network. It will ply between Janakpuri West and Botanical Garden. He also launched the National Common Mobility Card, meant to ease travel. The virtual event was also attended by Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal. Here are more details.
On the occasion, PM Modi said this new train shows India is effectively adapting smart systems. He reminded that late PM Atal Bihari Vajpayee worked for the first metro services. "When our government was formed in 2014, only five cities had metro services and today 18 cities have metro rail service," he added. By 2025, over 25 cities will have metro trains, he assured.
Earlier, India didn't have a policy as far as metro trains were concerned. It was just restricted to empty promises, PM Modi argued, revealing that his government has changed this. "In cities, where the footfall is less, work is underway for metro lite, which costs less than a full-fledged network. Further, cities that have large water bodies will get water metro," he went on.
PM Modi said that for India to have an efficient metro web, "Make in India" is crucial. "Make In India is very important for the expansion of metro services. It reduces cost and provides more employment to Indian people," he said. In his speech, he spoke about making India self-reliant and added that urbanization must not be seen as a challenge, but an opportunity.
The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leader shed light on the steps taken by his government to save time and make Indians more efficient. He mentioned GST, One Nation One Ration card, as well as One Nation One FASTag. The National Common Mobility Card follows the same line of thought as it can be used to pay for travel, toll duties, retail shopping, etc.
The Delhi Metro Rail Corporation Limited (DMRC) plans to start driverless train operations on the Pink Line (between Majlis Park and Shiv Vihar) soon. "Once the driverless trains are operationalized on the Pink Line too, the Delhi Metro will have a driverless network length of about 94 kilometer which will be approximately 9% of the world's total driverless metro network," DMRC had said earlier.
"The driverless trains will be fully automated which will require minimum human intervention and will eliminate the possibilities of human errors. Delhi Metro has been a pioneer in introducing technology-driven solutions for passenger comfort and this is another step in the same direction," DMRC added.
