Metro network grows bigger, more hi-tech

The year 2016 saw the Delhi Metro make steady progress in its Phase III expansion project even though no new sections were opened to the public.

Apart from the DMRC trying to complete Phase III corridors, several of which faced delays due to difficulty in acquiring land, one of the major highlights this year has been the trial runs of ‘driverless’ trains.

Driverless trains

Metro trains enabled with the Unattended Train Operation (UTO) mode, India’s first, were tried out by the Delhi Metro Rail Corporation (DMRC) in May.

The inaugural train moved out from the Mukundpur depot and travelled up to the Majlis Park Metro station of the Majlis Park–Shiv Vihar Metro corridor of Phase III (Pink Line).

The DMRC said that the sophisticated trains are equipped to eventually support driverless operations.

The DMRC also started trial runs on other under-construction sections such as ITO–Kashmere Gate stretch (5.17km of the Violet Line), and the Botanical Garden–Kalkaji Mandir (13km) and Janakpuri West–Terminal 1 of IGI Airport (10km) stretches of the Magenta Line.

To expedite the process of commencing trials on the Janakpuri West–Terminal 1 section, an entire six coach train was lowered onto the tracks near the Sadar Bazar Cantonment station using cranes and trailers. The process required absolute precision to avoid physical damage to the trains or the civil structure, said the DMRC.

Going underground

The DMRC also wrapped up all the tunnelling works of Phase III on November 29 with the completion of a 1.25km-long tunnel between Vasant Vihar and Munirka on the Janakpuri West–Botanical Garden stretch of the Magenta Line.

This marked the completion of one of the largest tunnelling projects taken up in any urban area in the world.

This year, the DMRC also started Wi-Fi facilities for passengers at the Rajiv Chowk and Kashmere Gate Metro stations as well as the stations on the Airport Line.

There are plans to introduce similar facilities in the other stations soon.

Ridership record

The Delhi Metro also broke more ridership records this year. On August 17, 33 lakh people (33, 36,550) rode the Metro in just one day, which happened to be the eve of Rakshbandhan.

A few days earlier, on August 12, the Airport Line broke the 50,000 mark with 50,077 passengers travelling by it in one day.

Technical snags

The DMRC, however, has also been in the news for technical snags that occassionally left thousands of passengers stranded, particularly on its busiest corridor – the Blue Line.

Recently, smoke emanating from a train near the Kirti Nagar Metro station stalled services for a few hours.

Also, two of its driverless trains brushed against each other during a trial. The trains were being run by the staff of the train manufacturer and not the DMRC.