Vande Bharat Express breaks down; shadow over tomorrow's commercial run

Causing a major embarrassment to ministry of railways, India's first indigenous semi-high speed train Vande Bharat Express or Train 18 met with a major technical snag at Barhan on Saturday, hours before its first commercial ride on February 17.

This happened almost 18 hours after Prime Minister Narendra Modi inaugurated the train on Friday evening. This has now cast a shadow on the first commercial ride of the much-hyped train set to happen on Sunday morning.

At around 5.30 am in the morning, when the train was on its way back after the inaugural run with a group of journalists and railway staff, the train met with the technical snag about 18 kilometers away from Tundla. This was followed up by smoke and foul smell in the first four coaches of the train.

An official who does not want to be quoted said that there was a major technical fault that led to brake locking and wheel friction. In addition to this, this has led to a complete power failure in four coaches. At around 7.50 am, while the story was being filed, railway officials could not provide an exact reason.

Vande Bharat has 16 coaches and can ferry 1,128 passengers. It was conceived and executed in 18 months. Another official said that such snags may take eight to ten hours to get repaired. Interestingly, tickets for the train was available only on waiting list till February 24.

The train can run at a speed of 130 kmph, while its average speed is expected to be around 99 kmph in its commercial rides.