Hyderabad Metro CBTC Signalling
This overview was generated with AI from the public sources listed below and checked against them before publication. It has not had a complete human fact-check — treat it as a starting point and follow the sources.
How this atlas is made · What “last verified” means · What “source-checked” means
Hyderabad Metro runs the tech behind driverless metros elsewhere — but eight-plus years on, it still carries two drivers per train because the operator never switched on unattended running.
what does this mean?
The strongest source is the operator's or the city's own reporting — an official report, dataset or press release. It grades who did the looking — not how well the project went. All four grades →Part of 1001 Smart Cities — 1,167 documented projects · 🏙️ 5 more in Hyderabad · 🚌 Public transport guide · 🚲 Mobility projects
Hyderabad Metro, which opened its first stretch in November 2017, runs on Communication-Based Train Control (CBTC) — among the first elevated metro systems in India built on this technology rather than older fixed-block signalling. CBTC lets the Operations Control Centre at Uppal supervise train separation and automatically apply brakes if a driver errs, and Hyderabad runs it in Automatic Train Operation (ATO) mode — but with two drivers on board per train, not unattended operation. The technology can support driverless running; the operator has not switched it on. The network has since grown to three corridors.
🎓 Lesson
Advanced train-control hardware is necessary but not sufficient for driverless operation — the operating decision matters as much as the technology.
Sources
Continue exploring
Compare this project
Explore the wider context
📎 Cite this project
1001 Smart Cities (2026). “Hyderabad Metro CBTC Signalling” — Hyderabad, India. The Smart City Atlas. https://1001smartcities.org/projects/hyderabad-metro-cbtc-signalling/ (last verified 2026-08-02). Data: CC BY 4.0.
The underlying data is free to reuse with attribution — see the open data page.