Special commandos to guard sensitive stations on Delhi-Katra Vande Bharat Express route: RPF

Special commandos will be deployed at sensitive stations, like Jammu and Pathankot, on the 654-km route of the Delhi-Katra Vande Bharat Express to respond to any security situation, a senior Railway Protection Force official said on Thursday.

RPF Director General Arun Kumar said Commandos for Railways Security (CORAS) will not be deployed on the train, flagged off from Delhi on Thursday, but only at identified locations on the route.

The security measure has been taken after a survey of the route by the RPF.

The first Vande Bharat Express launched between Delhi and Varanasi earlier this year had faced incidents of stone pelting enroute, damaging its window panes.

The windscreen of the Delhi-Katra Vande Bharat Express also fell prey to stone-pelting during one of its trial runs two days ago, officials said. The "minor crack" was noticed during the inaugural run on Thursday, they said, adding the windscreen will be replaced.

"These are made-to-order glasses. It will be replaced in a day or two. It is being brought from ICF in Chennai," said an official requesting anonymity.

DG Kumar said all measures have been taken to ensure that such incidents do not recur.

"We have done a division-wise survey of the route across three divisions Delhi, Ambala and Ferozpur along with local police and GRP and adequate security has been placed," he said.

Each coach in the Vande Bharat Express has six CCTV cameras, according to officials.

They said artificial intelligence technologies like facial recognition and leftover baggage detection systems are being used.

"The facial recognition technology alerts us if it finds someone stealthily or moving constantly at some place in the train and then we analyse it," an official said.

Also, there were several reports of cattle being run over in Uttar Pradesh due to which the Vande Bharat train was damaged.

Kumar said they have held community meetings in areas from where stone-pelting incidents were reported and the feedback has been encouraging.

"There were incidents of stone pelting on the train from areas around Delhi like Subzi Mandi, Azad Nagar. It happened due to encroachment on railway land. The new train between Delhi and Katra has protective coating on its windows to guard against stone-pelting and also has reinforced cattle guard," he said.