Let’s do away with drivers: Rail Corp to World Bank

Automated trains have been proven safe and effective on Metro railways in many parts of the world. “Soon,a tender will be floated for appointing an agency for the study,” said a senior CR official.

MRVC managing director PC Sehgal maintained that no proposal is being sent to the World Bank for a detailed engineering report,though a technical feasibility study has already been conducted.

“This project will cost about Rs 3,000 crore. But as far as a detailed engineering report is concerned,it has been postponed for at least two years,” Sehgal said,adding that it is not on the priority list since the Mumbai Urban Transport Project (Phase 2) and the work of converting harbour line trains on CR to 12-car coaches need to be completed first.

“After that,will get this project sanctioned by the Railway Board and only then will we send a proposal to World Bank to appoint agency for a detailed engineering report.”

The MRVC proposal is based on the 2006 report by Hong Kong-based agency MTR that concluded that automatic operation would improve frequency on the suburban route,the objective for which the agency had been appointed.

MTR has given instances of railway routes with automated trains in Hong Kong and France having a frequency of 1.5 to 2.5 minutes. Driverless trains would make Mumbai’s suburban division,too,capable of a similar frequency,the report said.

However,unlike Mumbai where trespassing on railway lines is a regular feature,other cities have automated train control (ATC) systems on Metro rail systems where routes are completely protected. Some of these systems also have underground tracks providing natural insulation from human interference.