The Delhi Metro Rail Corporation (DMRC) on Thursday started trial runs on the Pink line between Shakurpur and Mayapuri metro station. The 6.5 km stretch is the elevated section of the upcoming 59 km long Majlis Park-Shiv Vihar corridor (line 7) of phase-III. The trial runs were flagged off by DMRC’s managing director Mangu Singh.
The new unattended train operations (UTO) enabled trains will operate on this corridor. These new trains will undergo rigorous trials between these stations to ensure that they are ready for smooth operations after the commissioning of the corridor. “Initially, train operators will run the trains, but gradually, driverless operations (on the UTO mode) will be possible,” said a DMRC official.
The metro stations that come under this section are Shakurpur, Punjabi Bagh West, ESI Hospital, Rajouri Garden and Mayapuri. Of these stations, Rajouri Garden has an interchange facility with line 3/4 (Dwarka Sector 21 – Noida City Centre/Vaishali).
The official said during the trials, the interface of the metro train will be checked to ensure that there is no physical infringement with civil infrastructure during the movement of the train on the track. Testing of various subsystems of coaches will also be done.
The new signaling technology known as communication based train control (CBTC) will be implemented on this corridor and will undergo rigorous testing in stages. The response of the train at different speeds, braking of the train and the interconnection with the Operations Control Centre (OCC) will also be monitored during the trials. The behavior of the track system and the over head electrification (OHE) will be checked repeatedly.