India’s fastest train the Vande Bharat Express broke down a day after its launch by the Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
The engineless train, also called Train 18 was returning from Varanasi after it’s first run broke down 200 kilometers away from the national capital, New Delhi.
According to the staff, the controls have failed and the snag is “unfixable” for now. The train needs to be taken to Delhi for a repair, and it’s won’t go beyond 40 kilometers per hour. The train has also run out of water.
People onboard the train were shifted to other trains.
The fault led to failure of the air conditioner, power going off in some coaches, speed coming down to 10 kilometers per hour before it came to a halt before the Chamrola station.
There was mild smoke and foul smell, due to the deposit on the wheels the braking system also got jammed. When the staff tried to increase the speed the train would make noises.
The Indian built semi-high speed train was on commercial run from today. Yesterday, during the launch the train touched a high speed of 130 kilometers/hour, remember 180 kilometers/hour was the top speed.
The Railway Minister Piyush Goyal after receiving positive feedback ordered more trains.
The train received all clearances, and covered a distance of 7,000 kilometers in trial runs.