The Delhi Metro Rail Corporation (DMRC) took a major step towards the development of an indigenously built Communication Based Train Control (CBTC)-based signalling technology for metro railway with the launch of i-ATS, which is an important sub system of the signalling system.

This prototype system as well as a state of the art laboratory for further developing other sub- systems of indigenous CBTC technology was inaugurated on Tuesday at Shastri Park by Durga Shanker Mishra, Secretary, Ministry of Housing and Urban Affairs in the presence of DMRC’s Managing Director Dr Mangu Singh, Shikha Gupta, Director, BEL and other senior officials.

Speaking on the occasion, Mishra said, “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.”

Dr Mangu 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,” he said.

Automatic Train Supervision (ATS) is a computer based system, which manages train operations. This system is indispensible 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.

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 of India, the Ministry of Housing and

Urban Affairs (MoHUA) had decided to indigenise the CBTC technology.

Along with DMRC, Niti Aayog, MoHUA, Bharat Electronics Limited (BEL) and CDAC are part of this development. DMRC has been nominated to lead this important ‘Make in India’ initiative.

To take the project forward, DMRC and BEL entered into a MoU for development of this indigenous ATS system. A dedicated team of DMRC and BEL, Ghaziabad worked together round the clock to take this important step towards ‘Atma Nirbhar Bharat’.

“DMRC has decided to use indigenous ATS (i-ATS) while upgrading the ATS of line 1 (Red Line) i.e. from Rithala to Shaheed Sthal, Ghaziabad.  The same shall also be used in Phase 4,” it said.