Two children were run over and killed by Gatiman Express, India's first semi-high speed train, at Runakta station near Mathura today during its trial run.
"It was a trespass case. Two children were run over and killed by the train while crossing over the track," said a Railway Ministry official adding "Gatiman Express was returning from Agra when the mishap took place."
The Gatiman Express also developed a technical snag and had to be halted for nearly one hour between Mathura and Baad stations. The train was hauled by a diesel engine upto Mathura because the overhead electric equipment was damaged.
Admitting trespass is a serious problem for safe train operation, the official said steps are being taken to prevent such run over cases.
While the tracks between Delhi and Agra have been fenced off at certain places, the entire track has not been fenced off yet, a major safety concern for railways to launch semi-high speed train on the route.
Commissioner Railway Safety (CRS) had given the conditional clearance to the Gatiman Express in January this year to run for a year on a pilot basis.
Based on the experience of running Gatiman Express at 160 kmph for a year, a further review shall be done at Railway Board for extension of its operations.
Meanwhile, railways maintain that the trespass case is not a setback and preparations are afoot to launch it in April.
Railways undertook the seventh trial run of the Gatiman Express which today took 113 minutes to reach Agra from Delhi.
There were speed restrictions at some places due to the ongoing rail underbridge (RUB) work between New Delhi and Agra and that affected the Gatiman speed, said the official.
The Delhi-Agra Gatiman Express is expected to run at a maximum speed of 160 kmph and cover a 200-km distance in about 110 minutes.
Railways plan to roll out such trains on 9 more routes including Kanpur-Delhi, Chandigarh-Delhi, Hyderabad-Chennai, Nagpur-Bilaspur, Goa-Mumbai and Nagpur-Secunderabad.
