Delhi Metro’s driverless train operations on Pink Line to start on Thursday

New Delhi, Nov 24: In another milestone for the DMRC, 'driverless train operations' on 57-km Pink Line of the Delhi Metro is all set to be inaugurated on November 25, officials said on Tuesday.

Union Minister for Housing and Urban Affairs, Hardeep Singh Puri and Delhi Transport Minister Kailash Gahlot will inaugurate it via video-conferencing, slated to be held at 11:30 am, the DMRC said.

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 had said that his government, unlike its predecessors, had taken growing urbanisation as an opportunity and had asserted that metro train services would be extended to 25 cities by 2025 from the current 18.

The DMRC officials then had said the Pink Line, spanning Majlis Park to Shiv Vihar, would also have driverless operations by mid-2021.

However, the COVID-19 pandemic had majorly affected operations of the Delhi Metro.

Delhi Metro had begun its commercial operation on December 25, 2002, a day after the then prime minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee had inaugurated DMRC's first stretch, spanning 8.2 km from Shahdara to Tis Hazari, with just six stations.

The DMRC network's current span is nearly 392 km with 286 stations (including the Noida Greater Noida Metro Corridor and Rapid Metro, Gurgaon).