A fire broke out in the battery box of a coach of the Vande Bharat Express train, which was travelling from Madhya Pradesh’s capital Bhopal to New Delhi on Monday morning, said a senior railway official. In a video posted by news agency ANI on Twitter, West Central Railway Chief Public Relations Officer Rahul Shrivastava said that smoke was seen in in train number 20171, that travels from Rani Kamlapati Station to Nizamuddin after it caught fire. He said, later on the train was stopped at Kurwai Kethora station and the fire brigade extinguished the flames.
All the passengers are safe and no injuries have been reported so far. The officer also said that the battery box is being electrically isolated and the train would soon leave for Delhi.
As a precautionary measure, the entire train was evacuated following the incident. Local villagers residing near Kurwai Kethora also provided assistance to the fire brigade team in combating the fire.
Shrivastava also said the battery box will be examined. There were 20-22 passengers in the coach and they were shifted to other coaches immediately after the fire.
Some railway staffers noticed the fire at around 6.45 am in the battery box of C-12 coach following which the Rani Kamalapati-Hazrat Nizamuddin Vande Bharat train was immediately stopped between Kurwai and Kaithora stations in Vidisha district, Shrivastava said.
Moreover, the blaze was immediately brought under control, and Railway staff started conducting the repair work, said Shrivastava, reported PTI. The battery box was located in the undergear, relatively away from the passenger area. As the incident took place, electrical safety systems isolated the batteries.
The Rani Kamlapati-Nizamuddin route serves as Madhya Pradesh's inaugural Vande Bharat train. It was inaugurated four months ago, on April 1, by Prime Minister Narendra Modi.