New Delhi, Dec 2 (IANS): The Delhi Metro Rail Corporation (DMRC) on Friday took a major step towards operationalising its Phase 4 corridors for passenger operations by signing the contract for procuring 312 Metro coaches (52 trains) for Phase IV priority corridors.

The corridors include Majlis Park to Maujpur, Janakpuri West to R.K. Ashram Marg and Tughlakabad to Delhi Aerocity.

Of the 312 coaches, DMRC will procure 234 standard gauge coaches for the extended sections of Line 7 (Pink Line) and Line 8 (Magenta Line) which is Majlis Park to Maujpur and Janakpuri West to R K Ashram Marg. In addition, 78 standard gauge coaches will be procured for the Tughlakabad to Delhi Aerocity corridor.

All these trains will be compatible for driverless operations, in line with the Delhi Metro's efforts for providing world-class services to commuters and will provide a fillip to the Make in India initiative of the Government of India. These coaches will be manufactured in Alstom India's facility at SriCity near Chennai.

The contract was signed on Friday by Om Hari Pande, Director (Electrical), DMRC, and Olivier Loison, MD, Alstom Transport India Limited at Metro Bhawan.

While the Janakpuri West - RK Ashram Marg extension of the Magenta Line will get 144 new coaches (24 trains), the Mukundpur - Maujpur extension of the Pink Line will get 90 new coaches (15 trains). As mentioned above, the new silver line corridor from Aerocity to Tughlakabad will be provided with 78 new coaches (13 trains).

As part of the Phase 4 expansion of the Delhi Metro, DMRC is constructing 65.20 kilometres of new lines across three different corridors in the national capital with 46 Metro stations. All the corridors under this phase of Metro expansion will be completed by September, 2025.

The Delhi Metro currently operates on a network of 391 kilometres with 286 Metro stations (including the NOIDA - Greater NOIDA corridor and the Rapid Metro, Gurugram).

Currently, The Delhi Metro currently operates a fleet of about 350 Metro trains with four, six, and eight coaches on both broad gauge and standard gauge. The Delhi Metro's trains are among the most advanced worldwide in the mass urban transit sector. Driverless operations were commenced on the Delhi Metro network on Magenta Line in December 2020. Ever since driverless services have also been started on the Pink Line.