Dehradun: A stone pelting incident on the newly launched Dehradun-Delhi Vande Bharat Express train was reported on June 18, officials said. Railway officials said the stone was pelted at the E1 coach of Vande Bharat Express near Muzaffarnagar station on the Delhi-Dehradun Route. However, the officials said no one was injured during the incident. Delhi division mobilised Railway Protection Force (RPF) to catch hold of the culprits.
The indigenously-built train was virtually flagged off by Prime Minister Narendra Modi last month, which connects Dehradun with New Delhi.
“On the Delhi-Dehradun route, stone pelting was reported on the E1 coach of the Vande Bharat Express near Muzaffarnagar station. No one was hurt in the incident. The Delhi division has mobilised Railway Protection Force to apprehend the perpetrators,” said Railways.
The incidents of stone peltings are not new to the train. Earlier this year, in January alone, the Vande Bharat Express witnessed three such incidents across the country.
In January 2023, stones were pelted by miscreants on the new Jalpaiguri-Howarh Vande Bharat Express. Stones were pelted at the Vande Bharat Express, which was going to New Jalpaiguri towards Howrah. Initially, the stone fell on India’s C-13 coach of the Vande Bharat Express near Kumarganj station at around 5:10 pm, according to the reports. Because of that, the glass of the door of the compartment was broken.
In January 2023, the Railway Protection Force (RPF) informed that two window panes of the Vande Bharat Express train were left damaged after stones were allegedly pelted at the two coaches near the Phansidewa area of the Darjeeling district. This was the second time in the same month that window panes of the Vande Bharat Express were broken as stones were thrown at the train connecting Howrah to New Jalpaiguri near Malda.
On February 10, 2023, India’s most advanced, the Vande Bharat Express train, running between Secunderabad and Visakhapatnam, came under attack in the Mahabubabad district in Telangana. According to reports, some unidentified miscreants pelted stones at a coach of the Secunderabad-Visakhapatnam Vande Bharat while it was passing through the Mahabubabad district. The train’s mirrors were damaged in the stone pelting. Prime Minister Narendra Modi on January 15 virtually flagged off the Vande Bharat train service between Secunderabad in Telangana on the occasion of Makar Sankranti.
Earlier, in March 2023, an incident of stone pelting on Vande Bharat Express train was reported from West Bengal in which window panes of a coach of the high-speed train were damaged, Eastern Railway said in a statement.
Stone pelting took place near Farrakka in the Murshidabad district of West Bengal. In January 2023, two back-to-back incidents of stone pelting caused damage to Vande Bharat Express trains. In the first one, two window panes of the semi-high speed train were left damaged at the two coaches near the Phansidewa area of the Darjeeling district.
Earlier, on April 6, 2023, a fresh incident of stone pelting was reported at the Vande Bharat Express from Visakhapatnam, informed officials. Again, in January, stones were pelted at the Vande Bharat train in Visakhapatnam during maintenance. The glass pane of a coach was damaged near Kancharapalem in Visakhapatnam. According to Divisional Railway Manager (DRM), Anup Kumar Sethupati said, “Some unknown persons pelted stones at Vande Bharat train as it reached Visakhapatnam for maintenance and train run.”
On April 25, the window panes of a coach of the Vande Bharat Express were damaged after stones were thrown on the train near Valapattanam in Kerala’s Kannur district. The incident happened around 11:30 am while the train was travelling from Thiruvananthapuram to Kasaragod.
Earlier, in May, a similar incident was reported from Kerala where stones were pelted at Kerala’s first Vande Bharat Express. According to Southern Railway officials, the incident was reported when the train was travelling between Tirunavaya and Tirur. The newly launched train was going to Thiruvananthapuram from Kasargod. Attackers pelted stones against the windows of seats 62 and 63 of the C4 coach, cracking them.
(with inputs from ANI)
