Ayodhya-Delhi Vande Bharat held up for hours after cattle run over in UP

The Ayodhya-Delhi Vande Bharat train was held up for around three hours near Etawah in Uttar Pradesh on Thursday following a technical snag owing to a cattle being run over.

"A bull accidentally came on to the track near Bharthana railway station and was hit by the train which caused substantial damage to the engine, leading to technical problems in its operation," said Shashi Kant Tripathi, chief public relations officer of North Central Railway.

He said it took time to rectify the issue because the technical glitches recurred a couple of times when the train started moving.

According to railway officials, the fencing of the track on the Delhi-Howrah route has been going on for the past few years, but the stretch along the Bharthana station has not been fenced yet.

"The fencing work of the Delhi-Howrah route has already been sanctioned and is going on rapidly. The 700-km route between Ghaziabad and Deen Dayal Upadhyay stations comes under the NCR zone. Since fencing is needed on both sides of the track, the total fencing work comes up to 1,400 km," Tripathi said.

He said 1,100 km has already been fenced while the remaining 300 km is set to be completed by December 2024. "We hope that after the fencing of the track is completed, cattle runover cases will end on this route," the officer said.

However, some loco pilots on the Delhi-Howrah route say locals have broken the fence to cross the railway lines in several places as either they do not want to use the footbridge, or the facility is not available.

"Due to these gaps in fencing, cattle come near the track, mainly during the rainy season, to graze and get hit by trains. I think the Railway Protection Force needs to be more vigilant to overcome this menace by lodging cases against the owners of such cattle," a loco pilot said.

On 9 September, the Delhi-Varanasi Vande Bharat train developed a serious technical glitch at Bharthana railway station, which led to its cancellation. The passengers were shifted to other trains and several express and mail trains were delayed for hours.

Senior officials of the Northern Railway and North Central Railway deliberated for hours about how to rectify the technical issues of new-generation trains like Vande Bharat in a short time so that passengers do not have to suffer.