ICF rake in place of Vande Bharat rake surprises many on Mangaluru-Madgaon route

ICF coaches were marked as chair car and executive class coaches in lieu of the regular Vande Bharat Express on the Madgaon-Mangaluru Central route on Saturday. | Photo Credit: SPECIAL ARRANGEMENT

ICF coaches were marked as chair car and executive class coaches in lieu of the regular Vande Bharat Express on Madgaon-Mangaluru Central route on Saturday. | Photo Credit: SPECIAL ARRANGEMENT

Passengers at railway stations along the Karnataka coast were in for a surprise to watch a conventional electric locomotive hauling just five ICF rakes during the time slot of the Mangaluru Central-Madgaon-Mangaluru Central Vande Bharat Express on Saturday.

A railfan who noticed the ‘special’ train at Honnavar took a short video of the same while on its arrival at Madgaon, some railfans clicked its pictures too. Sources said Konkan Railway Corporation Ltd. personnel had to paste the coach number and other details on the ICF coaches as Southern Railway had despatched the train in a hurry from Mangaluru.

While the actual Vande Bharat Express (eight-car rake) on this route had about 560 seats in all, the replacement rake had 238 seats [three 3-Tier AC and one 2-Tier AC coaches].

The Mngaluru Central-Madgaon-Mangaluru Central Vande Bharat Express (Train No. 20646/645) is owned and maintained by Southern Railway’s Palakkad division out of Mangaluru coaching depot.

Sources in Railways told The Hindu that the VB rake was reported ‘sick’ on its arrival at Mangaluru Central on Friday night.

“We made every effort to resolve the technical issue throughout the night,” they said. “We arranged a special rake on Saturday morning with ICF coaches not to inconvenience passengers who had booked seats.”

About 140 passengers had booked seats on the Mangaluru-Madgaon service from Mangaluru. Asked whether the VB train set would be ready for the Sunday operation, sources said they are hopeful to operate it.

Divisional Railway Manager of Palakkad division Arun Kumar Chaturvedi told The Hindu that the passengers are issued “lower class travel” certificates by Railways so that they can claim the differential fare. “This is the best we could do [deploying an alternative rake and issuing the LCT certificate],” he said.

A railfan said passengers who wish to get the refund have to file the ticket deposit receipt (TDR) form and wait for Railway’s approval of the claim. While the executive class fare on the VB is ₹2,350 and chair car is ₹1,330, that of 2-AC is ₹1,065 and 3-AC is ₹765 on an express train for Mangaluru Central-Madgaon travel.