Delhi Metro Rail (DMRC) in India has opened a new rail line, Line-7, which runs from Majlis Park to Durgabai Deshmukh South Campus station.

The new line, dubbed the Pink Line, is equipped with the Bombardier Cityflo 650 driverless rail control technology. With the latest opening, the total number of interchange stations in Delhi Metro has now increased to 16.

The 59-km, 38-station line will connect with all six of the DMRC network’s existing lines. Trains on Line 7 will be able to operate at speeds of up 85 km/hr.

“The start of services on this first section of the fully-automated line is a major milestone in our expansion of public transportation in Delhi.”

Cityflo 650 communications-based train control (CBTC) uses modern radio networks and can operate in the full range of train operating modes, including driverless. It delivers centralised train supervision and reduced maintenance costs.

DMRC Signalling executive director Navneet Kaushik said: “The start of services on this first section of the fully-automated line is a major milestone in our expansion of public transportation in Delhi.

“Once completed this line will ease pressure on the existing network as it will interchange at 11 stations with other Metro lines, out of which five will be available with opening of this section.”

The stations will enable new as well as existing commuters of DMRC to have access to several alternate and shorter routes from one point to another point across Delhi-NCR.

Over a period of two months, five new interchange stations have been added to the network. In December last year, two interchange stations were added as part of the opening of the Botanical Garden to Kalkaji Mandir section of Line-8, the Magenta Line.

The five new interchange stations are Azadpur, Netabji Subash Place, Rajouri Garden, Botanical Garden and Kalkaji Mandir.

In January this year, the overall ridership of Delhi Metro, which witnessed a drop in October last year, increased by 69,000 over the previous month.