India on Saturday achieved another milestone by launching an indigenously developed train control and supervision system for the first time. i-ATS (Indigenous-Automated Train Supervision) system has been launched by the Delhi Metro Rail Corporation (DMRC) on its first corridor i.e. Red Line (Rithala to Martyr Sthal). With the launch of i-ATS, India has become the sixth country after France, Germany, Japan, Canada and China to have its own ATS product.
i-ATS (Indigenous-Automated Train Supervision) has been launched by Manoj Joshi, Secretary, Ministry of Housing and Urban Affairs, Government of India and Chairman, Delhi Metro, from the Operations Control Center (OCC) at Shastri Park. Several senior officials from both DMRC and BEL were present including Delhi Metro Managing Director Vikas Kumar and Bharat Electronics Limited (BEL) Chairman and Managing Director Bhanu Prakash Srivastava.
i-ATS has been jointly developed by DMRC and Bharat Electronics Limited (BEL). Both signed an MoU in November 2022. To take the project forward, a full-fledged i-ATS lab has been set up at DMRC’s IT Park, where a dedicated team from both the organizations is working together to prepare the technology for operations.
The project is in line with Prime Minister Narendra Modi-led government’s ‘Make in India’ and ‘Atmanirbhar Bharat’ initiative for Metro Rail Transit System.
Delhi Metro will install i-ATS system for operation on other corridors and upcoming independent corridors of Phase-IV project. Preventive maintenance modules will also be introduced in the Phase 4 corridor using I-ATS.
Later, the i-ATS system is expected to be used in the operation of other rail-based systems, including the Indian Railways. The technology has been developed with the flexibility to work with systems from different signaling vendors with suitable modifications.
With this development, the country has moved a step ahead to have an indigenously built CBTC (Communication Based Train Control) based signaling system for Metro Railways. ATS (Automatic Train Supervision), is a computer based system that manages train operations. It is also an important sub-system of the CBTC signaling system.