Family of three run over by suburban train near Veppampattu station
The Hindu
Residents of Veppampattu block tracks in protest after 3 die in train accident. Lack of pedestrian subway to blame. Southern Railway and State govt urged to coordinate and complete subway work by March 2021. Express and suburban trains on same track pose threat to commuters. New contractor selected, overbridge work pending.
A man and his two daughters were fatally run over by a speeding suburban train at Veppampattu railway station on Sunday.
The accident resulted in the residents blocking the tracks in protest and demanding the speedy completion of a pedestrian subway, which has remained incomplete for more than three years.
A senior officer of the Government Railway Police (GRP) said Manoharan, a resident of Perumalpet, near Veppampattu, and his daughters Dharshini, 18, and Tharini, 17, were going to the Veppampattu railway station to meet his wife, who had been admitted to the Kilpauk Government Medical College and Hospital in Chennai. When they were crossing the tracks, as the station did not have a foot overbridge or pedestrian subway, a suburban train bound for Arakkonam knocked them down. All three died on the spot.
The Tiruvallur GRP and the Railway Protection Force (RPF) personnel sent the bodies to the Government Tiruvallur Hospital for a post-mortem.
Radhakrishnan, a resident of Veppampattu, complaining about the lack of any facility for pedestrians to cross the tracks safely, said the pedestrian subway work, which was started several years ago, had been left incomplete. He wanted the Southern Railway and the State government to coordinate and complete the work at the earliest to prevent such accidents.
Commuters also said the operation of express and suburban trains on the same track posed a threat to commuters.
A senior official of the Chennai Division of the Southern Railway said the pedestrian subway work had been stalled as the contractor had left the project midway. However, a new contractor has been selected, and the work was expected to be completed by March next year. He also pointed out that the railway overbridge work was the one pending and would soon be initiated.
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