5 Held For Pelting Stones At Vande Bharat To Run Via Odisha Ahead Of Inauguration

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Raipur: Five persons have been arrested for pelting stones at Durg-Visakhapatnam Vande Bharat Express, which will pass through Odisha, ahead of its inauguration by Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Monday.

The incident occurred around 9 pm on Friday when the train was passing through Bagbahra railway station in Chhattisgarh’s Mahasamund district, on its way back from Visakhapatnam to Durg during its trail run. The window panes of three coaches of the train – C2-10, C4-1, and C9-78 – were damaged. After the train reached Durg, the repair work was undertaken. 

All the accused, identified as Shivam Kumar Baghel, Jeetu Tandi, Lekhraj Sonwani, Arjun Yadav and Devendra Chandrakar, are residents of Bagbahara.  They have been booked under Section 153 of the Railways Act 1989, an official of Railway Protection Force said.

Durg-Visakhapatnam Vande Bharat train will not have a stoppage at Bagbahara, and this could be the reason why these miscreants threw stones at the train during its trial run, a news report quoted a local saying. 

The new train (20829) will leave Durg at 5.45 am and arrive in Visakhapatnam at 1.45 pm. In the return direction, train no. 20830 will leave Visakhapatnam at 2.50 pm and reach Durg at 10.50 pm, the same night. This train will have halts at Raipur, Mahasamund in Chhattisgarh, Khariar Road, Kantabanji, Titlagarh, Kesinga, Rayagada in Odisha and Vizianagaram. The train will run six days a week except on Thursdays. It will have a Vande Bharat rake of 16 cars.