Green Line to undergo inspection by CRS today for driverless runs
Times of India | 12 July 2026
Kolkata: The city’s Green Line (East-West Metro) will undergo examinations on Sunday to be able to run driverless trains on the automatic train operation (ATO) signalling mode. Green Line services will commence from 4.30 pm on Sunday instead of the usual 9 am for the inspection.
The ATO is the third stage of superior communication-based train control (CBTC) signalling technology which runs the Green Line. It will make trains operate automatically, with motormen only initiating the process and managing door operations at stations.
Rigorous ATO trials have been conducted on Howrah Maidan-Sealdah section since Aug, last year. On Sunday, the commissioner of railway safety (CRS) will inspect the Green Line (Sector V-Howrah Maidan corridor) to check whether the system is ready to run driverless trains.
Driverless metro trains use the modern signalling system to accelerate, brake, and stop at stations without motorman having to steer the rake from inside the designated cabin.
TOI reported Aug 6, last year, the beginning of “Driverless trials for the East-West Metro’s under-river section to Sealdah via the subsidence-hit Bowbazar”.
Sources said the safety clearance will enable Metro Railway to launch the city’s first driverless train on the alignment in the next few months. Over the last one year, trials were held with six-car BEML rakes. Several stages of speed and other specifications have already been checked by the Research Designs and Standards Organization. Now it’s the CRS’ turn to clear the advanced signalling operation,
Initially, the operators will run the automatic trains, but the goal is to eventually shift to driverless operations, he said.
Till PM Modi flagged off the last 2.45km leg of the corridor, between Sealdah and Esplanade through the subsidence-hit Bowbazar, the Green Line ran two disjointed sections (9.2 km Sector V-Sealdah and 4.8 km Esplanade-Howrah Maidan). After the last leg was launched, East-West Metro corridor became continuous, spanning 16.6km from Sector V to Howrah Maidan.
In 2023, the Sector V-Sealdah section was equipped with ATO. But neither the Esplanade-Sealdah stretch nor the Esplanade-Howrah Maidan, which was opened by the PM in March 2024, had. Therefore, the Green Line continues to run on automatic train protection movement (ATP) to be in sync with the rest of the corridor.