In the second such incident in two days, a Gandhinagar-Mumbai Vande Bharat Express hit a cow near Anand station in Gujarat. Officials said the train’s front portion received a minor dent due to the incident.
The incident on Friday took place at 3.48 pm near Anand, about 432 km from Mumbai. “Cattle run over incident occurred with passing Vande Bharat train near Anand in Vadodara division, wherein one cow was hit. The train was on its journey from Gandhinagar to Mumbai on Oct 7. The incident occurred at 15.44 hours and the train was detained for about 10 minutes. There is no damage to the train, except a minor dent on the nose cone cover of the front coach i.e driver coach. The train is running smoothly. This will be attended at the earliest,” an official statement by the Indian Railways said.
The incident comes a day after a newly-launched Mumbai Central-Gandhinagar Vande Bharat train hit the herd of buffaloes around 11.15 am on Thursday near Ahmedabad, when the train was on its way to Gandhinagar. Four buffaloes were killed in the incident and the Railway Protection Force (RPF) in Gujarat has registered a case against the owners of buffaloes, officials said.
“The RPF has lodged a first information report (FIR) against the unidentified owners of the buffaloes that came in the way of Vande Bharat train between Vatva and Maninagar railway stations in Ahmedabad,” WR’s senior spokesperson (Ahmedabad division) Jitendra Kumar Jayant said.
The nose cone cover, made up of FRP (fibre-reinforced plastic), of the driver coach of the semi-high speed train was replaced with a new one in Mumbai, the Western Railway (WR) said in a statement. Officials said the train covered the distance to Gandhinagar Capital station and back to Mumbai Central without the nose cover panel as there was no damage to it train’s vital parts.
Officials also explained that the design of the train was “sacrificial by design and hence replaceable.” “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,” WR’s Sumit Thakur said.
Railway Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw in a statement on the incident in Gujarat said collision with cattle on the tracks is unavoidable and this has been kept in mind while designing the semi-high speed train.
“In India, the tracks are laid on the ground. Wherever you go, cattle will cross them, one cannot stop them. Unless we elevate the tracks in another 5-6 years, they (cattle) will come in front of the trains,” the minister said.
“The trains will run at a speed of 120-130-160 kmph and a collision is inevitable. It is a matter of common sense and design. Therefore, design it in such a way that you can mend it whenever there is such an incident,” the Union minister said.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi had flagged off the train on the route on September 30.
(with inputs from PTI)
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