In a significant development in the field of rail-based mass transit, the Delhi Metro on Saturday launched India's first ever indigenously developed Train Control & Supervision System, the i-ATS (Indigenous - Automatic Train Supervision) for operations on its first corridor, Red Line (Rithala to Shaheed Sthal). The i-ATS system was formally launched on the Red Line on Saturday from the Operations Control Centre (OCC), Shastri Park by Manoj Joshi, Secretary, Ministry of Housing and Urban Affairs, Government of India and Chairman, Delhi Metro, in the presence of Vikas Kumar, Managing Director, Delhi Metro and other senior officials of DMRC & BEL.


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This entirely locally-made signalling system has been jointly developed by DMRC and Bharat Electronics Limited (BEL) under the Government of India's 'Make in India' and 'AatmaNirbhar Bharat' initiatives for the Metro Rail Transit Systems. With this milestone, India is the 6th country now joining the elite list of a few countries in the world with their own ATS products.


Beginning with Red Line, the i-ATS System will further be deployed for operations on Delhi Metro's other operational corridors and the upcoming independent corridors of the Phase - 4 Project as well. Preventive Maintenance modules shall also be introduced in the Phase 4 corridors using i-ATS. In addition, i-ATS can be used in the operations of other rail-based systems including Indian Railways.


This technology has been developed with the flexibility to work with different Signalling vendors' 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 signalling system for the Metro railway since the ATS (Automatic Train Supervision) is an essential subsystem of the CBTC Signalling system.


ATS is a computer-based system, which 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 significantly reduce the dependence of Indian Metros on foreign vendors dealing with such technologies.


As part of the 'Make in India' and 'AatmaNirbhar Bharat' initiatives of the Government of India, the Ministry of Housing and Urban Affairs (MoHUA) had decided to indigenise the CBTC technology. Along with DMRC, MoHUA, Bharat Electronics Limited (BEL), RDSO and other associates are parts of this development.


To take the project forward, DMRC and BEL entered into an MoU in November 2022. A dedicated team of DMRC and BEL are working together to prepare the technology for operations. A full-fledged i-ATS Lab has been set up at DMRC`s IT Park to simulate the site requirements and is now being upgraded for the development of the CBTC system.