Titagarh Rail Systems and Swiss automation major ABB Group have taken a major step to develop driverless metro train technology in India.

What’s brewing: under the agreement, ABB India, the Swiss company’s Indian arm will help design, build, and install the propulsion systems that power metro trains, and transfer technology for the Train Control and Monitoring System (TCMS), the digital “brain” that controls and monitors the train.

The TCMS will run on 25 kV AC and operate at GoA2 (semi-automatic mode with a driver onboard), with the option to upgrade to GoA4 (fully driverless trains) in the future.

A metro train running on 25 kV uses over 100 times that voltage so it can pull heavy trains, accelerate quickly, and carry thousands of passengers without slowing down.

The significance: the new train technology will be rolled out on Line 5 (Kapurbawadi-Kalyan APMC) and Line 6 (Swami Samarth Nagar–Vikhroli). 

These corridors are crucial as they cut commute times by up to 75% on Line 5 and 30-45 minutes on Line 6.