The Delhi Metro Rail Corporation (DMRC) has developed an indigenous signalling technology for Metro railways under the Make in India initiative.
This i-ATS prototype system as well as a state-of-the-art laboratory, for further developing other sub-systems of indigenous communications-based train control (CBTC) technology, was inaugurated on September 15 on the occasion of Engineers’ Day at Shastri Park by Durga Shanker Mishra, secretary, ministry of housing and urban affairs (MoHUA), in the presence of the DMRC’s managing director Mangu Singh, Bharat Electronics' (BEL's) director Shikha Gupta, and other senior officials from the DMRC and BEL.
Along with the DMRC, NITI Aayog, MoHUA, BEL and CDAC are part of this development. The DMRC has been nominated to lead the Make in India initiative.
To take the project forward, the DMRC and BEL entered into a memorandum of understanding for development of this indigenous ATS system. The DMRC has decided to use indigenous ATS (i-ATS) while upgrading the ATS of line 1 (Red Line) from Rithala to Shaheed Sthal, Ghaziabad. The same shall also be used in Phase 4.
“It is a really proud occasion to start something like this which is going to add to our strength on the Atmanirbhar Bharat initiative. The way we have promoted indigenisation in the development of Metros in the country, I am fully confident that this Indian system will also be sold outside and we will be the leaders in this area as well,” Mishra said.
Singh termed this achievement as a major step forward towards the development of indigenous technologies required for the operation of Metro rail systems. “This is a very important step towards the development of an indigenous CBTC system. I am sure that we will be able to work together and scale newer heights to completely indigenise Metro railway construction as well as operations.”
ATS (Automatic Train Supervision) is a computer-based system, which manages train operations. The system is utilised for high density operations, such as the Metro, where services are scheduled every few minutes. i-ATS is the indigenously developed technology, which will significantly reduce the dependence of Indian Metros on foreign vendors dealing with such technologies, explained Anuj Dayal, executive director, corporate communications, DMRC.
Technology systems such as the CBTC are primarily controlled by the European countries and Japan. As part of the Make in India initiative of the government, the MoHUA had decided to indigenise the CBTC technology.
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