Title - Magnetic Metro scrapped

The ambitious plan of Delhi Metro to introduce high-speed magnetic metro trains without wheels in phase 3 to run through a small corridor, has finally been scrapped. According to officials, the plan to run the Magnetic Levitation or Maglev trains to ply on the 5.5 km Najafgarh-Dwarka corridor proposed in phase 3 has been dropped. "We wanted to introduce the Maglev trains on experimental basis on a small stretch. But we later realised that Maglev is not a trusted technology and may create technical problems in the future," said SD Sharma, director business development, Delhi Metro Rail Corporation (DMRC).Last year a three-member team comprising former DMRC chief E Sreedharan, former director (works) and present MD Mangu Singh and director (rolling stock) HS Anand had visited Korea to gather first-hand experience about the Maglev trains. Korean Institute of Machinery and Materials have been engaged in development of Maglev trains in Korea. After returning, Sreedharan had sent a proposal to the union urban development ministry and also the chief minister of Delhi.After gathering experience from this small stretch, DMRC wanted to introduce Maglev trains at other cities as well at a later stage, HS Anand, director Rolling Stock had told HT. Initially, Delhi Metro thought that they will be able to run Maglev technology-based trains on the stretch as these trains' passenger carrying capacity is almost similar to the mid-capacity trains that are operational on Line 5 (Inderlok-Mundka) and Line 6 (Central Secretariat-Badarpur).

"As we have dropped the plan to introduce Maglev trains, mid-capacity trains will ply on the proposed Najafgarh-Dwarka corridor to be built in phase 3," Sharma said.