Vande Bharat Express Mishap Saga Continues: Suffers “Jammed Wheels”

New Delhi: The recently introduced semi-high-speed train Vande Bharat Express, has been in the news for hitting cattle for the last three days.

The train, however, ran into trouble yet again today due to ‘jammed bearings’.

The past three cattle-related railway catastrophies happened on the Gandhinagar-Mumbai route whereas this incident happened on the New Delhi-Varanasi route.

“The Varanasi Vande Bharat (Train number 22436) suffered a failure due to a bearing defect in the Traction Motor of C8 coach between Dankaur and Wair stations of North Central Railway,” officials said.

However, the bearing defect was later fixed, but the passengers had to be shifted to a Shatabdi train, rushed in from New Delhi, at Khurja station.

“Detailed investigation of the failure will be done after taking the rake back to maintenance depot,” officials said.

In Gujarat, the Gandhinagar-Mumbai train struck a cow on Friday, only one day after it struck a herd of buffaloes. The train’s front bumper was slightly dented, but yesterday it had to be stopped for ten minutes.

In the incident on Thursday, the train’s “nose” cone came off after it struck four buffaloes. After an eight-minute break, it resumed since the nose, a fibre-reinforced plastic bumper, is not crucial to the vehicle’s operation.

Evidently, the Gandhinagar-Mumbai Vande Bharat Express was flagged of  by PM Narendra Modi last month. The trains boasts a top speed of 160 kmph.