Doors of Mumbai-Shirdi Vande Bharat get stuck at Thane station

Transport experts stated that these are short-term problems that occur in the early stages of a new project, which usually continue for a few days and constant training on operating these new-age trains is needed.

Mumbai: Three days after Prime Minister Narendra Modi flagged off two Vande Bharat trains in the city, passengers faced a technical glitch on Sunday evening in the Mumbai-Shirdi train. The doors of the entire 16-car train did not open and passengers were forced to walk to the guard who sits on the rear side of the train to deboard.

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The incident happened at Thane station, which led to a 12-minute delay from the scheduled timing.

“There was a transient issue in which doors did not open as the control software could not sense that the train had come to a complete halt. Therefore, it did not allow doors to open as a safety measure. This glitch was rectified at Dadar, and thereafter there were no problems in opening and closing of doors,” said a CR official.

People took to social media to highlight this problem. Transport experts stated that these are short-term problems that occur in the early stages of a new project, which usually continue for a few days and constant training on operating these new-age trains is needed.

Meanwhile, the demand for Vande Bharat trains on both Shirdi and Solapur has seen a good response from people. As of 4 pm on Monday, 3,229 passengers travelled in Chair Car on both up and down lines of Mumbai-Shirdi Vande Bharat trains on February 12-13. Likewise, at least 200 passengers travelled in the Executive Chair Car on these two days.

Similarly, in the Mumbai-Solapur route, 3,754 and 289 seats were booked for Chair Car and Executive Chair Car on February 12-13.

The railway officials claim that they expect more people to use the two Vande Bharat trains in the coming days.