Vande Bharat on Mysuru-Bengaluru-Chennai route hits calf, suffers dent: Report

This is the country's fifth Vande Bharat Express train which was recently flagged off by PM Modi.

Nearly a week after it was flagged off by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, the Vande Bharat Express train - on the Chennai-Mysuru-Bengaluru route - is reported to have been faced with a cattle incident. This was reported in Tamil Nadu's Arakkonam on Thursday, The Times of India reported. The semi-high-speed train, which takes one stop at Bengaluru's KSR Railway station on its route, suffered a dent from the accident, while the calf died. The train was going at a speed of 90 km per hour when the accident happened, the report said.

The Vande Bharat Express is India's first semi-high speed train. (HT PHOTO/For representation only) (HT_PRINT)

Taking into consideration the curves and turns in the ghat section where it has to travel, officials had set its average speed at 75 to 77 kmph, which made it the slowest among the five Vande Bharat Express trains launched in the country so far.

WATCH | Bengaluru student plays Vande Mataram tune on flute on Vande Bharat train

The train took a few minutes of halt after the accident for the damages to be inspected, then carried on with its journey to its destination - Chennai. This is the fifth accident involving a Vande Bharat train since October.

The publication quoted a Southern Railways public relations officer as saying that the department will track down the calf's owner, file a case and impose a heavy fine to avoid similar untoward incidents in the future.

READ | Four major accidents in one month of operation of Vande Bharat Express

In the wake of several incidents of cattle runover, Union Minister for Railways, Ashwini Vaishnaw, on Wednesday had said the government will be constructing a boundary wall on a 1,000-kilometre stretch in the coming six months to prevent cattle from getting on the tracks.