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Cattle run over by Vande Bharat train in Gujarat; Engine nose cover damaged
The Mumbai-Gandhinagar Vande Bharat Superfast Express train was stopped for 20 minutes at the spot of the incident but reached its destination as per schedule
A cow was hit by a Mumbai-Gandhinagar Vande Bharat Superfast Express train on Saturday at 8.30am near Atul station in Gujarat’s Valsad, damaging the nose cover of the engine, officials said.
This is the third instance of train-cattle collision since the launch of the indigenously designed and manufactured semi-high speed train on September 30.
The train was stopped for 20 minutes at the spot of the incident but reached its destination as per schedule.
The Western Railway (WR) staff removed the damaged nose cover and placed it in the driver coach before resuming the journey.
Vital parts of the train remained unaffected from the impact.
“On this hit with cattle, nose-cone cover of front coach or driver coach was damaged with its mounting brackets. The nose cover is designed to absorb the impact without transmitting the same to the functional parts of the train. Railway keeps sufficient nose-cones as spare. This will be replaced with new one in Mumbai Central depot during maintenance after the train returns to Mumbai in the evening,” said Sumit Thakur, chief public relations officer, Western Railway.
In the first week of October, two similar incidents occurred where cattle were run over by the newly inaugurated Vande Bharat Express. On October 6, four buffaloes were killed after being hit by the 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. The second incident occurred the next day on October 7 when the train hit a cow near Anand in Gujarat while on its way to Mumbai.
As there are no barricades along railway track after Dahanu Road station, the cattle tend to foray into the tracks. Awareness drives and various announcements to man the cattle were made by the Western Railway in villages within proximity of the railway track. Western Railway officials said that it is taking all actions to prevent such type of incidents in future.
