Delhi Metro launched indigeneous developed signalling technology on February 18, 2023, for operations on the Red Line connecting Rithala to Shaheed Sthal. With this milestone, India becomes the sixth country to join the list of a few nations in the world having their own ATS products, as per an official statement.
The country’s first-ever Indigenous Automatic Train Supervision System (i-ATS) has been developed by a joint team of Delhi Metro Rail Corporation (DMRC) and Bharat Electronics Limited (BEL), under the government’s ‘Make in India’ and ‘Aatmanirbhar Bharat’ initiatives for metro rail transit systems, officials said.
The i-ATS system was formally introduced on the Delhi Metro’s Red Line from the Operations Control Centre (OCC) in Shastri Park by Manoj Joshi, the Secretary of Union Ministry of Housing and Urban Affairs, who is also the Chairman of DMRC.
Beginning with the Red Line, the i-ATS System will further be deployed for operations on other operational corridors and upcoming corridors of Phase – 4 Project. Preventive maintenance modules will also be introduced in the Delhi Metro’s Phase 4 corridors using i-ATS. Moreover, i-ATS can be used in the operations of other rail-based systems, including Indian Railways. The technology has been developed with the flexibility to operate with different signalling vendor’s systems with suitable changes.
The development of the i-ATS is a significant step towards the development of an indigenously built CBTC (Communication Based Train Control) based system. ATS signalling system for Metro railway since the ATS (Automatic Train Supervision) is an important sub-system of the CBTC Signalling is a computer-based system that manages train operations.
This system is indispensable for high train density operations such as the Metro, where services are scheduled every few minutes. Technology systems such as the CBTC are primarily controlled by foreign countries. The deployment of i-ATS will reduce the dependence of Indian Metros on foreign vendors dealing with such technologies. The Ministry of Housing and Urban Affairs (MoHUA) had decided to indigenise the CBTC technology. Along with MoHUA, BEL, DMRC, RDSO and other associates are part of this development.
