Glitch hits Vande Bharat on New Delhi-Varanasi route, passengers moved to Shatabdi
On Saturday, the rake of the Vande Bharat train, which left New Delhi station at its scheduled time of 06.00 am, suffered a failure due to a bearing defect in the traction motor of the C8 coach between the Dankaur and Wair stations of the North Central Railways (NCR), officials said.
The New Delhi-Varanasi Vande Bharat Express was taken out of operation on Saturday after it suffered a snag in the traction motor that jammed its wheels, officials said.
The incident comes days after the newly-launched Vande Bharat Express train on the Gandhinagar-Mumbai route suffered minor damages by colliding with cattle on the railway line for two consecutive days.
On Saturday, the rake of the train, which left New Delhi station at its scheduled time of 06.00 am, suffered a failure due to a bearing defect in the traction motor of the C8 coach between the Dankaur and Wair stations of the North Central Railways (NCR), officials said.
“The bearing jam was rectified with the assistance of the NCR team. However, due to the development of a flat tyre of 80 mm, the train moved at a restricted speed of 20 kmph up to Khurja station, where the replacement rake, which departed from the New Delhi Railway Station (NDLS) at 10:45 am, was present,” a railways official said, adding that all 1,068 passengers deboarded at the Khurja station, and were shifted to a Shatabdi Express rake sent from Delhi for their onward journey.
Railways officials said that a joint team of six officers of the Northern Railways (NR) and the NCR, headed by the additional divisional railway manager (ADRM) OP Delhi, reached the site to monitor the situation and assist in transhipment.
“A detailed investigation of the failure will be done after taking the rake back to the maintenance depot. According to inputs, passengers have been shifted successfully, and the replacement rake departed from Khurja station at 12:57 pm,” the above-mentioned official said.
Officials close to developments said the train left the New Delhi railway station at its scheduled time of 6 am. When it was hurtling past the level crossing gate no 146, gateman Shozeb felt some friction in the seventh compartment from the rear SLR (seating cum luggage rake) and immediately reported the brake block jam. The train was halted at Ajaibpur and the brake binding was removed.
Later, Dankaur station master Brajesh Kumar spotted another snag under the same coach, which was then repaired and the train was brought to Khurja railway station at a speed of 20 kilometres per hour, officials added.
The incident comes after the front portion of a Vande Bharat train engine was damaged after it hit some buffaloes between Gairatpur and Vatva stations around 11.15 am on Thursday. The train was travelling from Mumbai to Gandhinagar when the incident occurred. While no one was injured, four buffaloes were killed in the incident.
On Friday, the train, which departed Gandhinagar at around 3 pm, hit a cow near Anand station. It suffered a dent on the nose of the engine which was subsequently repaired, a Western Railways official said.
The new Vande Bharat was inaugurated by Prime Minister Narendra Modi on September 30 and it commenced operations on October 1.
