The Delhi Metro Rail Corporation (DMRC), on Saturday, announced that they will start driverless operations on the 59 km-long Pink Line (Majlis Park-Shiv Vihar) by mid-2021.

This will be the second driverless service that the DMRC will be offering, the first being on the 37 km-long Magenta Line (Janakpuri West–Botanical Garden).

The inauguration of the driverless operations on Magenta Line was the first major event of Delhi Metro in 2020 after the spread of coronavirus saw the country going under lockdown.

The Delhi Metro had resumed services with curtailed operation on the Yellow Line from September 7 after being closed for over five months.

The Delhi Metro’s currently operational network spans about 390 km with 285 stations across 11 corridors (including NOIDA–Greater NOIDA line).

Although, initially drivers will be deputed for operating the trains they would be gradually withdrawn to move to Unattended Train Operation (UTO). 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 driverless train having six coaches is equipped with several advanced features. The metro rail scenario in the entire nation has undergone a massive transformation in the last six years. While in 2014, only 248 km of metro lines were operational in five cities, presently 702 km are operational in 18 cities in India, the DMRC statement said.