It seems the Vande Bharat Express, one of Indian prime minister Narendra Modi's favourite trains that also symbolises the country's 'Make in India' spirit has entered a dark tunnel.
After two consecutive incidents of the newly launched Vande Bharat Express between Gandhinagar and Mumbai hitting cattle on tracks in Gujarat, the prime minister's home state where he flagged it off on September 30, the train covering the New Delhi-Varanasi route met with an incident on Saturday (8).
The third incident was not, however, about hitting cattle on the tracks but because of "flat tyre". It was reported that the Varanasi-bound train had a problem in its wheels because of jammed bearings and the passengers had to be shifted to another train, rushed in from New Delhi, to take them to their destination because the Vande Bharat had a "flat tyre". The passengers boarded the other train, a Shatabdi Express, at Khurja railway station in Uttar Pradesh.
"The Varanasi Vande Bharat (Train number 22436) suffered a failure due to bearing defect in Traction Motor of C8 coach between Dankaur and Wair stations of North Central Railway," officials said.
The bearing jam was fixed but because of a "flat tyre", the passengers had to be shifted to the other train, it was told.
"Detailed investigation of the failure will be done after taking the rake back to maintenance depot," officials said.
On Thursday (6), the Gandhinagar-bound Vande Bharat train from Mumbai hit a herd of cattle on the tracks that badly damaged its 'nose'. It was repaired within a day but on Friday (7), the train faced another incident in the same state when it hit a cow. The damage was minor on the second occasion.
The train reaches 160 km per hour in just over two minutes, and has better riding comfort than other trains, according to the Indian Railways.
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