Vande Bharat Express to be guarded by squad equipped with action camera to check stone-pelting incidents

The initiative is a part of security beef up exercise which the Railway Protection Force (RPF) has launched to keep a check on the incidents of stone pelting on the train, which has now become quite frequent.

Special patrolling squad equipped with action camera and heavy duty camcorders would now guard country’s first semi-high speed train—Vande Bharat Express. The initiative is a part of security beef up exercise which the Railway Protection Force (RPF) has launched to keep a check on the incidents of stone pelting on the train, which has now become quite frequent.

Passengers seen boarding India's first semi-high speed express train Vande Bharat Express, at PrayagrajJunction. (Sheeraz Rizvi /HT Photo)

“Initially, there used to be a regular patrolling squad. But now we have replaced the squad with the one armed with action camera and camcorders in order to capture the images of those engaged in the illegal act of stone pelting on the newly introduced train so that they could be identified and punished,” said Amresh Kumar, senior divisional security commissioner RPF, Allahabad.

So far, the train has been subjected to stone pelting around 6 times, suggests record with the Railways. On December 20, 2018, during the trial run, the train was subjected to stone pelting for the first time. It was followed by another incident that was reported in February when the train was attacked by the stone pelters during its trial run in West UP. Similarly in March, some people pelted stone on the train while it was on Kanpur-Prayagraj route. It was followed by other incidents as well.