New Delhi, October 7
The Vande Bharat Express on the Gandhinagar-Mumbai route hit a cow near Anand station in Gujarat on Friday. This happened a day after the train hit a herd of buffaloes.
On Friday, the front portion of the train got dented and it had to be halted for 10 minutes.
In Thursday’s incident, the newly launched semi-high-speed train had hit four buffaloes and its ‘nose’ cone had come off. It proceeded after an eight-minute halt. The animals had died.
The Railway Protection Force (RPF) in Gujarat has registered a case against the owners of buffaloes, officials said on Friday.
Railway Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw has said such collisions with cattle are unavoidable and “this has been kept in mind while designing the train”. “Its nose on the front is totally replaceable,” the minister said earlier today.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi had flagged off the train last month and travelled in it from Gandhinagar till Kalupur railway station in Ahmedabad. “The train’s front portion has suffered a small dent,” Sumit Thakur, chief public relations officer of Western Railway, was quoted by news agencies, adding that all the passengers were safe.
The train can reach a top speed of 160 km per hour in just over two minutes.
