Vande Bharat Express rams into cattle, suffers minor damage; 2nd incident in 2 days

Vande Bharat Express, running between Mumbai Central and Gandhinagar, rammed into cattle on Friday and suffered minor damage to its nose panel. This comes a day after the newly-introduced semi-high speed train suffered minor damage after colliding with a herd of buffaloes between Vatva and Maninagar stations in Gujarat.

On Friday, the Vande Bharat Express hit a cow near Anand station in Gujarat, resulting in minor damage to the train's nose panel. A railway official said the semi-high speed train did not sustain major damage in the latest incident except a small dent on the nose panel.

"A cattle run-over incident occurred with Vande Bharat train near Anand in Vadodara division, wherein one cow was hit. Train was on its journey from Gandhinagar to Mumbai today. Incident occurred at 3:44 pm and the train halted for about 10 minutes," said Sumit Thakur, CPRO, Western Railway.

"There was no damage to the train, except a minor dent on the nose cone cover of the front coach. The train is running smoothly. This will be attended to at the earliest," he added.

READ | Vande Bharat gets a nose job hours after hitting cattle

An FIR has been registered against the cattle owners following the incident.

Meanwhile, Union Railway Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw said that collision with cattle on tracks is unavoidable and this has been kept in mind while designing the semi-high speed train.

The Mumbai-Gandhinagar Vande Bharat Express started its commercial run on October 1, a day after it was flagged off by Prime Minister Narendra Modi in Gujarat's capital, Gandhinagar.

ALSO READ | Mumbai-Gandhinagar Vande Bharat Express damaged after colliding with cattle