Druti Banerjee, Pune
On Wednesday, A glass pane of the Kasargod-Thiruvananthapuram Vande Bharat Express was shattered by stone pelters. This is the third instance of stone-throwing on trains in Kerala.
According to railway officials, the incident happened between 4 and 4.30 p.m. while the train was close to Vadakara. Following the stone-pelting of two trains in the northern Kannur district three days ago, this is the third similar event to occur in the state.
The event broke a glass in the train’s C-8 carriage. The event didn’t result in any injuries. They claimed that the glass had been broken from the outside. The Mangalore-Chennai Superfast Express and Netravati Express were attacked with rocks on Sunday evening when they arrived at a location between Kannur South and Valapattanam in the district. According to authorities, both trains’ AC carriages’ window panes sustained damage.
On April 25, Thiruvananthapuram and Kasargod were connected via the first Vande Bharat Express train for Kerala. Except for Thursday, the train runs six days a week. With 14 stops along the way, it completes the 586-kilometer voyage in eight hours and five minutes.
The Bhopal-Delhi Vande Bharat Express suffered damage to one of its windows earlier this week when a 20-year-old man, Firoz Khan, was accused of throwing stones at the semi-high-speed train in Madhya Pradesh’s Morena district. On Sunday morning, at about 10 a.m. The event happened close to Banmore Railway Station while the train was traveling to Delhi.
Union Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw informed Parliament that the Railways have lost more than Rs 55 lakh as a result of the damage brought on by stone-pelting on Vande Bharat trains since 2019. Vaishnaw responded to a question in the Lok Sabha by stating that 151 people involved in stone pelting had been detained as a result of similar instances.