Mumbai-Gandhinagar Vande Bharat damaged after hitting cattle, nose cone damaged

This is the third such incident involving this semi-high speed train so far this month. The incident occurred around 8.20 am, the official said. The train rammed into the cattle that came on to the track near Atul railway station.

A railway official said,” Mumbai-Gandhinagar Vande Bharat Express train rams into cattle near Atul station in Gujarat; no operational damage caused.” The nose of the newly-launched Mumbai Central-Gandhinagar Vande Bharat Express train had suffered damage after it hit a bull.

“There is no damage to the train, except damage on nose cone cover of front coach i.e Driver coach. The train is running smoothly. This will be attended to at the earliest,” according to a statement by the Indian Railways. “In the cattle runover incident, one bull was hit,” the Railways further said.

“The nose cover is designed to absorb the impact without transmitting the same to the functional parts of the train. Therefore, it is sacrificial by design and hence replaceable,” Sumit Thakur, chief public relations officer of the Western Railway said. Railway authorities were trying to counsel nearby villagers not to leave their cattle near the track.

The CPRO said Western Railway is going to undertake fencing work on the Gandhinagar-Ahmedabad section to increase the speed of the train to 160 kmph and avoid such incidents in the future. The fencing work is likely to be completed by March 2024, Thakur said.

The indigenously designed and manufactured semi-high speed train, the third service under the Vande Bharat series, was flagged off by Prime Minister Narendra Modi on September 30 from Gandhinagar Capital and it started the commercial run from the next day.

On October 6, four buffaloes were killed after being hit by this train on its way to Gandhinagar from Mumbai between Vatva and Maninagar railway stations in Gujarat. Its nose panel had to be replaced overnight due to the damage. In the second such incident that occurred the next day (October 7), the train had hit a cow near Anand in Gujarat while on its way to Mumbai.

Vande Bharat Express trains already run on Delhi-Varanasi, Delhi-Katra and Delhi-Una routes. From Wednesday (October 5), WR revised the train’s timetable and reduced travelling time by 5 minutes between Mumbai Central and Gandhinagar Capital and by 20 minutes between Gandhinagar Capital and Mumbai Central. The indigenously designed trainset (Train-18) has undergone a lot of upgradation in its Vande Bharat 2.0 version. In the new version, rotating seats in executive chair car coaches, automatic sliding doors, improved communication between guard and loco pilots, aeroplane-like vacuum toilets, improved interiors and reclining seats are some of the major upgrades.

*With inputs from agencies