As the Delhi Metro enters its 20th anniversarye year of operation today, the field trial of the very first i-ATS (Autochthonous – Automatic Train Supervision) technology ever developed for the Delhi Metro Red Line (Shaheed Sthal – Rithala) was inaugurated by Durga Shanker Mishra, Secretary of the Ministry of Housing and Town Planning. Business, Government of India and Chairman of DMRC via videoconference.
On this occasion, Mishra also inaugurated an exhibition on the theme “Tracing Delhi Metro’s Journey†which was developed at Kashmere Gate metro station. The location from where then Prime Minister Shri Atal Vihari Vajpayee opened the nation’s very first metro corridor that day in 2002 has been redeveloped into a full-fledged exhibit with photographs and invaluable anecdotes that will take visitors on a journey to remember this historic day that sparked a new revolution in the history of public transport in India.
This will be a permanent exhibit and passengers using the largest interchange facility in the Delhi Metro network will be able to visit this exhibit at no additional cost.
Dr. Mangu Singh, Managing Director, DMRC, Ms. Anandi Ramalingam, CMD, Bharat Electronics Limited (BEL) and other senior officials were also present at the ceremony.
This i-ATS technology was jointly developed by DMRC and BEL and is currently being implemented on the red line. With this achievement, India will become one of the few countries in the world to have its own ATS product that can be implemented in other metros as well as in rail systems.
The development of the i-ATS system is a major step towards the development of a CBTC (Communication Based Train Control) based signaling technology for metropolitan railways, as the i-ATS is a sub- important system of the CBTC signaling system. ATS is a computer system that manages train operations.
This system is essential for high density operations such as the metro, where services are scheduled every few minutes. i-ATS is a locally developed technology, which will now significantly reduce the dependence of Indian metros on foreign suppliers dealing with such technologies.
Technological systems such as CBTC are mainly controlled by European countries and Japan. As part of the Indian government’s “Make in India†initiative, the Ministry of Housing and Urban Affairs (MoHUA) decided to indigenize CBTC technology. Along with DMRC, Niti Aayog, MoHUA, Bharat Electronics Limited (BEL), RDSO and CDAC are part of this development. To move the project forward, DMRC and BEL reached a memorandum of understanding last year. A dedicated team from DMRC and BEL, Ghaziabad worked together around the clock to take this important step towards “AtmaNirbhar Bharatâ€.
The i-ATS system will also be used in the next corridors of Phase 4. Predictive Maintenance modules will also be introduced in the corridors of Phase 4 using the i-ATS system.
