Vande Bharat Express again attacked with stones, third time in two months

Unidentified miscreants pelted stones at newly-launched semi-high-speed Vande Bharat Express (Train 18) while it was on its way to Varanasi on Wednesday. In the incident, a window pane of the train was broken, but no passenger was injured. Vande Bharat Express, India’s fastest engine-less train, was earlier came under stone-pelting during its trial run on February 1. This was the second such incident in less than two months. That took place when the train left Sakurbasti around 11:03 pm to reach New Delhi to begin its trial run to Allahabad, railways said told news agency PTI. However, no one was hurt in the incident and no arrests were made. The train was escorted by Railway Protection Force (RPF) personnel. 

"A railway servant present in T-18 informed the escort party that a stone hit the window glass of coach no.188320 of T-18," a northern Railway official said.

In a similar incident on December 20, the train was attacked during a trial run between Delhi and Agra.

What is Vande Bharat Express?

# It is India’s first engineless train which has been manufactured by Integral Coach Factory, Chennai.

# It recently became India's fastest train by hitting speeds of over 180 kmph during a trial run on a section of the Delhi-Rajdhani route.

# It will replace Shatabdi trains and will run between Delhi and Varanasi.

# Recently, the Indian Railways has named Train 18 as Vande Bharat Express, Railway Minister Piyush Goyal said. The train, which is set to run between Delhi and Varanasi at a maximum speed of 160 km per hour, will be flagged off by Prime Minister Narendra Modi soon.

# The 16-coach train was made under the government's Make in India project. The fully air-conditioned train will stop at Kanpur and Allahabad and will have two executive chair cars.

# The gleaming, blue-nosed train comes fitted with amenities on a par with the best in the world - on-board Wi-Fi, GPS-based passenger information system, touch-free bio-vacuum toilets, LED lighting, mobile charging points, and a climate control system that adjusts the temperature according to occupancy and weather.