New Delhi, December 20: The fastest train of Indian Railways – Train 18 – was pelted with stones on Thursday during its trial run between Delhi and Agra. The train is scheduled to be flagged off by Prime Minister Narendra Modi on December 29.

Informing the media about the incident, General Manager of the Integral Coach Factory Sudhanshu Manu tweeted took to Twitter and wrote, “Train 18 running at 180 km/h between Delhi and Agra at this time... Srinivas, the Chief Design Engineer of ICF is in the cab, they touched 181 kmh for record sake... Some vandal threw a stone breaking a glass, hope we nab him.” Manu added that the matter is being investigated. Train 18’, India’s 1st Engine-Less Train, Likely to Be Launched on Atal Bihari Vajpayee’s Birth Anniversary With Increased Fare Between New Delhi-Varanasi.

According to the reports, the first engineless train – Train 18 – is scheduled to replace the Shatabdi and is most likely to ply between Delhi and Varanasi. The coaches have been manufactured by Chennai based Integral Coach Factory at the cost of Rs 100 crore. The train has crossed the speed of 180 km per hour during a trial run on a section of the Delhi-Rajdhani route and became fastest in India.

As per the tentative plan, Train 18 would depart from New Delhi station at 6 am and is expected to reach Varanasi at 2 pm. Also, for it return journey, the train would start from Varanasi at 2.30 pm and reach the national capital at 10.30 pm on the same day.

Train 18 is fitted with amenities at par with the best in the world – on-board WiFi to a GPS-based passenger information system, touch-free bio-vacuum toilets, LED lighting, mobile charging points and a climate control system that adjusts the temperature according to occupancy and weather.

With the Train 18 in service, it will have two executive compartments comprising of 52 seats each and trailer coaches with 78 seats each. In the latest, the executive class will have rotating seats to match the direction of the train.

(The above story first appeared on LatestLY on Dec 20, 2018 11:18 PM IST. For more news and updates on politics, world, sports, entertainment and lifestyle, log on to our website latestly.com).