India achieved another milestone on Saturday by launching the first ever indigenously developed Train Control and Supervision System. The i-ATS  (Indigenous-Automatic Train Supervision)   system has been launched by Delhi Metro Rail Corporation (DMRC) on its first corridor i.e. Red line (from Rithala to Shaheed Sthal). With the launch of i-ATS, India becomes the sixth country which has its own ATS products after France, Germany, Japan, Canada, and China.

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The i-ATS (Indigenous-Automatic Train Supervision) has been launched from the Operations Control Centre (OCC) located at Shastri Park by Manoj Joshi, Secretary, Ministry of Housing and Urban Affairs, Government of India and Chairman, Delhi Metro. Several senior officers of both DMRC and BEL were present including Vikas Kumar, Managing Director, Delhi Metro, and Bhanu Prakash Srivastava, Chairman and Managing Director, of Bharat Electronics Limited (BEL).

The i-ATS has been jointly developed by the DMRC and Bharat Electronics Limited (BEL). Both entered into 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 of both organisations are working together to prepare the technology for operations.

This project is in line with Prime Minister Narendra Modi-led government’s ‘Make in India’ and ‘AatmaNirbhar Bharat’ initiatives for the Metro Rail Transit Systems.

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The Delhi Metro will install the i-ATS system for operations on other corridors and the upcoming independent corridors of the Phase – 4 Project as well. The Preventive Maintenance modules will also be introduced in the Phase 4 corridors using i-ATS.

Later, the i-ATS system is expected to 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.

With this development, the country has moved a step forward for an indigenously built CBTC (Communication Based Train Control) based signalling system for the Metro railway. The ATS (Automatic Train Supervision), is a computer-based system which manages train operations. It is also an important sub-system of the CBTC Signalling system.