Calcutta, July 12 :     Metro drivers will be able to operate their trains by just the press of a button. There will be a Metro every 110 seconds . These seemingly impossible dreams will become reality after Metro Railway instals the Continuous Automatic Train Control (CATC) system on its trains, at a total project cost of Rs 70 crore. Tubes in France, the US, Canada, Hong Kong and Egypt already have this system. In Calcutta, this autopilot system will become operational by the year-end. 'It will virtually be a driverless train. With this system, we can operate a train every 110 seconds. We want Metro to be used to its fullest capacity of carrying five lakh passengers each day, and so we want to increase the number of rakes,' said I.I.M.S. Rana, Metro Railway general manager. At present, between two and three lakh passengers commute by Metro every day. The CATC system involves three sub-systems. They are the automatic train protection (ATP), the automatic train operation (ATO) and the automatic train supervision (ATS). Sophisticated gadgets have been brought from the French company, Alstom, and the trials have been successful. The ATP will continuously monitor the train's speed, watch its distance from the one ahead of it, and ensure it does not exceed the speed limit. 'While the ATP is on, and the driver tries to increase the speed, the system will automatically apply the emergency brakes and bring the train to a halt,' said M.L. Chugh, deputy chief signal and telecom engineer of Metro Railway. The ATP ensures that the distance between the trains is the minimum so that another train can enter the platform soon after one leaves. This system will decrease the passenger load on one train and distribute it among others, because people will have to wait for less than two minutes for the next one to arrive. The ATO system is basically an autopilot - it will do everything a driver does, like accleration, speed regulation, coasting and braking. The system will stop the train by giving out signals to programmed sensory equipment fitted on the tracks The rear motorman of a Metro train will have to open and shut doors and make announcements. Chugh said the ATO will relieve the driver of his monotonous duties so that he can concentrate on watching the tracks and seeing what is ahead. However, in an emergency and if the driver feels it is necessary, he can take over control and apply the brakes manually. The ATS enables officials to monitor the position and progress of trains from a central location. The routes of the trains can also be set from a central control room by this system. This system has a central computer, in which the various time tables of trains will be stored. This computer will help run the trains automatically, as per the time table for that particular day. 'The CATC is a fool-proof system. For instance, if there is any problem with the sensory equipment fitted on the tracks, the train will not run at a high speed. It will stop,' said Chugh.