Driverless train may soon be a reality in Kolkata post 2018

Illustration/Ravi Jadhav

Kolkata: Driverless Metro trains may soon be a reality in Kolkata, Indian Railways Director Yatish Kumar said here on Saturday.

"Driverless trains based on Grade of Automation 3 (GoA 3) is not a dream now in Kolkata. There is a target that all the new metro rakes in city from March 2018 would be GoA 3 grade driverless rakes," Director, Research Design and Standards Organisations of Indian Railways, Yatish Kumar said.

GoA 3 is a driverless train operation, where starting and stopping are automated but a train attendant operates only the gates of the trains. The new rakes to be imported from China would be for existing Metro, including new East-West and Dum Dum-Garia metro routes, he said.

Chennai, Bangalore and Lucknow already operates the GoA 3 rakes. GoA 4 is a true driverless train without any attendant as even train door operation is automated. One such rake is currently under trial in New Delhi Metro, Kumar said.