NEW DELHI: Delhi Metro is going to open the 13.5km long Kalkaji Mandir to Botanical Garden section of Magenta Line next month.This will be the first sec tion of Delhi Metro where commuters will travel in `driverless' trains. Though initially the trains will have operators, they will run on the Unattended Train Operation (UTO) mode. Due to the state-of-the-art technology being used in this line, the trial period has been unusually long."We are confident of opening the line and the first section to be opened will be the Kalkaji-Botanical Garden section of Line 8 (Janakpuri West-Botanical Garden)," managing director of Delhi Metro Rail Corporation ( DMRC ) Mangu Singh told TOI. "The exact date of opening will depend on the statutory clearances," he added.Singh said that the safety inspection of the section by the Commissioner of Metro Rail Safety (CMRS) is slated to begin from the first week of September. The corporation will need a go-ahead from the CMRS to finalise the date of starting commercial runs on the section.The section will not only put many areas of southeast Delhi on the Metro map, like Okhla, Jamia Millia Islamia, Shaheen Bagh and Sukhdev Vihar but also bring Faridabad closer to Noida. At present, commuters travelling from Faridabad towards Noida or vice versa interchange at the Mandi House station.After start of the new sec tion, Kalkaji Mandir and Botanical Garden stations will also offer interchange options for Violet Line (Escorts Mujesar-Kashmere Gate) passengers.The Magenta Line, which missed its deadline of June and will also miss the September deadline, will now be commissioned in phases from October to March.By March 2018, DMRC plans to complete the Phase III expansion of its network with the commissioning of not only the Magenta Line but the Pink Line (Majlis Park-Shiv Vihar) also.Trial runs between the Kalkaji Mandir and Kalindi Kunj section of the Magenta Line were started in August 2016, followed soon by trials between the entire Botanical Garden and Kalkaji Mandir section. As the corridor will witness the first operations of driverless trains, DMRC didn't want to take any chances and rigorous trials were carried out.The Kalkaji Mandir-Botanical Garden section is also the first one where the new signalling technology -Communication Based Train Control (CBTC) -will be used. CBTC signalling system was used in the Kochi Metro, also by DMRC, but the system to be used in Magenta Line will have higher levels of automation, a DMRC spokesperson said.

Stay updated with all the Latest Faridabad headlines here. For more exclusive & live news updates from all around India, stay connected with NYOOOZ.