A radial distribution system consists of 33/11 kV substation, 11kV feeders, distribution transformers, service mains and load points. The reliability of the radial distribution system has a significant influence on overall power system reliability. One of the method to improve the reliability of distribution system is automating both the substation and feeders. The automation process will reduce the restoration time after occurrence of fault and hence the annual average outage duration of load points decreases. In this paper (i) the effect of centralized star and redundant star automation schemes on load points of one and half breaker substation, (ii) the reliability indices of 11 kV radial feeder for non-automated and iii) automated scheme are evaluated. Further, the reliability indices of the complete distribution system for the above said cases are evaluated. Reliability of substation is evaluated using cut-set method and reliability of feeder is evaluated using Failure Mode and Effective Analysis Method (FMEA). Results obtained shows that redundant star automation scheme is better over the centralized star automation scheme. It is also concluded from the results that redundant star substation and feeder automation have more effective impact on distribution reliability.