AGL 40.06 Increased By ▲ 0.06 (0.15%)
AIRLINK 130.55 Increased By ▲ 1.02 (0.79%)
BOP 6.79 Increased By ▲ 0.11 (1.65%)
CNERGY 4.60 Decreased By ▼ -0.03 (-0.65%)
DCL 8.97 Increased By ▲ 0.03 (0.34%)
DFML 43.01 Increased By ▲ 1.32 (3.17%)
DGKC 84.15 Increased By ▲ 0.38 (0.45%)
FCCL 33.00 Increased By ▲ 0.23 (0.7%)
FFBL 78.15 Increased By ▲ 2.68 (3.55%)
FFL 11.85 Increased By ▲ 0.38 (3.31%)
HUBC 110.80 Increased By ▲ 0.25 (0.23%)
HUMNL 14.56 No Change ▼ 0.00 (0%)
KEL 5.62 Increased By ▲ 0.23 (4.27%)
KOSM 8.30 Decreased By ▼ -0.10 (-1.19%)
MLCF 39.70 Decreased By ▼ -0.09 (-0.23%)
NBP 60.80 Increased By ▲ 0.51 (0.85%)
OGDC 200.00 Increased By ▲ 0.34 (0.17%)
PAEL 26.65 No Change ▼ 0.00 (0%)
PIBTL 7.80 Increased By ▲ 0.14 (1.83%)
PPL 160.40 Increased By ▲ 2.48 (1.57%)
PRL 26.70 Decreased By ▼ -0.03 (-0.11%)
PTC 18.64 Increased By ▲ 0.18 (0.98%)
SEARL 83.04 Increased By ▲ 0.60 (0.73%)
TELE 8.23 Decreased By ▼ -0.08 (-0.96%)
TOMCL 34.48 Decreased By ▼ -0.03 (-0.09%)
TPLP 9.10 Increased By ▲ 0.04 (0.44%)
TREET 17.03 Decreased By ▼ -0.44 (-2.52%)
TRG 60.30 Decreased By ▼ -1.02 (-1.66%)
UNITY 27.81 Increased By ▲ 0.38 (1.39%)
WTL 1.42 Increased By ▲ 0.04 (2.9%)
BR100 10,564 Increased By 156.9 (1.51%)
BR30 31,945 Increased By 232 (0.73%)
KSE100 98,571 Increased By 1243.1 (1.28%)
KSE30 30,680 Increased By 487.9 (1.62%)

India's first semi-high speed train broke down Saturday after colliding with a cow on the tracks, a day after Prime Minister Narendra Modi inaugurated the new passenger service. The Vande Bharat Express, touted as India's fastest train and built under the Modi government's flagship "Make in India" programme, made its first journey Friday from New Delhi to the Hindu holy city of Varanasi.
But on its return to the capital the next day a collision with a cow disrupted electricity supply to four carriages and damaged the brake system, according to Indian Railways. "The train later experienced technical issues and was stranded on the way to Delhi," Indian Railways spokeswoman Smita Vats Sharma told AFP.
The train reached the capital "safely" ahead of its first commercial journey on Sunday, she added. Cattle obstructions on roads and rail tracks are common in India, particularly in Uttar Pradesh state where Saturday's collision happened.
Since coming to office, Modi's nationalist party launched a crackdown on the slaughter of cows - considered sacred by many Hindus - which has led to crisis numbers of stray and unwanted cattle in the state. India is struggling to upgrade its colonial-era railway system, which relies on creaking and outdated infrastructure to transport 23 million travellers each day.
The locally-made express train has a rated top speed of 180 kilometres (111 miles) an hour, 20 percent quicker than the next fastest train in service. Railway authorities say the train is expected to reduce the 850-kilometre journey between the two cities from 14 to eight hours.
Saturday's accident is the latest controversy for the express train - a pet project of Modi's government, which has vowed to debut India's first bullet train in 2022. Last week India's rail minister Piyush Goyal was left red-faced after he tweeted a digitally altered video of the train zipping by a station at lightning speed. He was later accused of altering the video to make the train appear faster, triggering widespread social media ridicule.

Copyright Agence France-Presse, 2019

Comments

Comments are closed.