The much talked about Vande Bharat Express ran into trouble during the early hours of Saturday — a day after successful completion of its inaugural run from New Delhi to Varanasi flagged of by Prime Minister Narendra Modi. The train was on its way back to New Delhi when it came to an abrupt halt around 6.00 a.m. near Tundla — about 200 km from its destination, due to “skidding wheels and jammed brakes.”
While initially the Railway officials had suspected that the glitch had occurred due to the train running over cattle, in an official statement issued later, the Ministry said, “During the transportation back from Varanasi, it [the train] was stopped at Chamraula station of National Capital Region, about 18 km after crossing Tundla station. There was an issue of communication between the last basic unit of four coaches and the rest of the train probably due to some external hit. Thereafter, safety features in the train applied brakes.”
Brakes jam
People traveling on the train at the time of malfunction said there was no power in the last four coaches and the brakes got jammed. “Some smoke was also noticed,” some added.
The train was stuck near Tundla for about 1.5-2 hours, after which it moved at a slow speed of up to 40 kmph.
While passengers on the train, including some journalists were transferred to another Delhi-bound train, a source said the Vande Bharat again came to a halt after covering about 50 km at around 9.00 a.m. due to “some technical issue in the electric signaling.”
However, the necessary repairs were done and it departed for New Delhi traveling at a speed of about 100 kmph, the source added. However, there was no official confirmation on this.
The Railways said the train was checked for faults and moved to Delhi. It reached Delhi at around 1 pm, around 14.5 hours after it started from Varanasi. The necessary repairs have been done and the semi-high speed train will commence its commercial operations from Sunday, as scheduled, railway sources said. The train is fully booked for Sunday’s run.
“The train has been examined at the New Delhi maintenance depot to rectify the defect in communication that occurred en route. All other systems have also been thoroughly examined. It will be able to run as per schedule on Feb 17. The Railways look forward to welcoming passengers on this historic journey,” the Ministry statement said.
Vande Bharat Express, formally called Train 18, is the fastest train in India, touching the 180 kmph mark during its trials. It can commercially run at a speed of 160 kmph. However, on the Delhi-Varanasi route it will run at 130 kmph covering the distance in about 8 hours, from over 11.5 hours at present.
