The Hindu Business Line : SkyBus test runs to resume: KRC chief

THE accident that claimed the life of a Konkan Railway employee on September 25 at the `SkyBus' test site in Goa will put the project behind schedule only by about a week and a demonstration run for the public is likely in the middle of October as earlier planned.

"We have suspended trial runs till the inquiry committee probing the accident submits its report, hopefully by Friday. After that, we will take the necessary corrective measures and resume testing as we have a spare coach. I had personally conducted several trial runs and the results had been quite encouraging," Konkan Railway Corporation General Manager, Mr B. Rajaram, told Business Line.

The 1.6 km test track, built in collaboration with the industry at a cost of Rs 50 crore, will continue to be a technology demonstration site and will never be thrown open to public, Mr Rajaram said. "It will continue to be our test track and we will even carry out dangerous destructive tests like collisions in due course. The accident is a setback, but such things happen when a technology is under development. The unfortunate incident will help us make the SkyBus safer before an actual system is constructed," he said.

Konkan Railway is already working with the Lucknow-based Research, Designs and Standards Organisation (RDSO) of the Railways and with the Bhabha Atomic Research Centre (BARC) to perfect the technology. "Once we set the standards with the help of RDSO and BARC experts, the Commissioner of Railway Safety (CRS) will come into the picture when an actual project is being implemented," he said.