Hours after being repaired, Vande Bharat Express rams into cattle again

Hours after the metal nose of Mumbai-Gandhinagar Vande Bharat train was repaired after colliding with a herd of buffaloes, the Express rammed into a herd of cattle again on Friday.

An official reported that the train’s front portion suffered a minor dent again in the accident. The development comes after a surgical team repaired it and the train was put back into service.

The train running from Mumbai Central to Gandhinagar in Gujarat had been repaired at the coaching care centre in Mumbai.

Speaking at an event, Railways Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw said collision with cattle on the tracks was unavoidable and this factor was kept in mind while designing the semi-high speed train.

"The train has been designed in such a way and it is so strong that if there is an accident, nothing will happen to the train. Its nose on the front is totally replaceable. As soon as the train reached Mumbai (after the incident on Thursday), it was completely cleaned up and its nose replaced," PTI quoted Vaishnaw as saying.

Notably, the Express train had collided with a herd of cattle between Vatva and Maninagar stations in Gujarat at around 11:18AM.

Meanwhile, the Gujarat Railway Protection Force (RPF) registered a case against the owners of cattle. However, the cops have not been able to identify the owners of the buffaloes.

The railway police have not yet been able to identify the owners of the buffaloes so far. When contacted, the cops said that efforts were on to identify the buffalo owners.

Speaking to PTI, Jitendra Kumar Jayant, WR's senior spokesperson (Ahmedabad division) said, “The RPF has lodged an FIR against unidentified owners of the buffaloes that came in the way of Vande Bharat train between Vatva and Maninagar railway stations in Ahmedabad."

The FIR has been filed under section 147 of the Railways Act, 1989, RPF inspector Pradeep Sharma told PTI. "The FIR was registered on Thursday evening in connection with the incident in which four buffaloes were killed," he said.

The indigenously designed and manufactured semi-high speed train, the third service under the Vande Bharat series, started its commercial run on October 1, was flagged off by Prime Minister Narendra Modi on September 30 from Gujarat’s capital, Gandhinagar.