India’s 1st-ever Indigenous Automatic Train Supervision System (i-ATS) was launched in February 2023 for operations on the Delhi Metro’s 1st corridor Red Line (Rithala to Shaheed Sthal) from the Operations Control Centre (OCC) in Shastri Park by Manoj Joshi, Secretary of Union Ministry of Housing and Urban Affairs, and Chairman of Delhi Metro Rail Corporation (DMRC).
- It has been developed by a joint team of DMRC and Bharat Electronics Limited (BEL), under the government of India’s ‘Make in India’ and ‘Aatmanirbhar Bharat’ initiatives for metro rail transit systems.
- Participants: Vikas Kumar, Managing Director, DMRC and Bhanu Prakash Srivastava, Chairman & Managing Director, BEL.
Key Points:
i.In March 2022, the final field trials of the signalling technology were inaugurated on the Red Line (virtually).
ii.With this launch, India became the 6th country to join the list of a few countries in the world which have their own ATS products.
iii.Upcoming initiative: The i-ATS System will be further deployed on Delhi Metro’s other operational corridors and the upcoming independent corridors of the Phase-IV project.
iv.Preventive maintenance modules using i-ATS are also planned to be introduced in the Phase-IV corridors.
v.As ATS is being an important sub-system of the CBTC (Communication Based Train Control) signalling system, the development of the i-ATS will enable the development of an indigenously built CBTC-based signalling system for the metro railway.
vi. i-ATS can be used in the operations of other rail-based systems including the Indian Railways.
vii.DMRC and BEL entered into an MoU under the i-ATS project in November 2022, under which a full-fledged i-ATS Lab has been set up at DMRC’s IT Park, and is now being upgraded for the development of the CBTC system.
-‘Momentum 2.0’: DMRC set to release India’s 1st virtual shopping & recharge metro app
DMRC stated about the launch of India’s first virtual shopping app for the metro, ‘Momentum 2.0’, which will allow users to make a variety of purchases and schedule a variety of services.
- It includes features such as instant recharge of Delhi Metro’s smart cards and smart payment options for other utility services.
Features of ‘Momentum 2.0’:
i.The app includes features for e-shopping options with a variety of goods and the ‘brick & click’ store for shopping at the metro stations.
ii. Through the app, metro commuters could buy a range of products and book services while travelling in the metro and collect their orders at the destination stations.
iii.Digital lockers named ‘Smart Boxes’ were being installed by DMRC in which the goods ordered through e-shopping on the app will be deposited and can be collected by the respective buyers once they arrive at their destination station.
iv.Users can get real-time information on the arrival time of trains and also the facilities available at metro stations such as lifts, escalators, platforms, occupancy of coaches, etc.
v.Recurring payments such as insurance, electricity, gas payments or FASTag recharge can be made via the app.
vi.The smart card could be recharged instantly with the app and it also has the auto-top-up facility.
About Delhi Metro Rail Corporation (DMRC)
Headquarters – New Delhi
Establishment – 1995
Chairman – Manoj Joshi
Managing Director – Vikas Kumar
