The Vande Bharat Express running between Mumbai Central and Gujarat’s Gandhinagar which was by cattle on Thursday morning has been repaired at the coaching care centre within a day. No functional part of the train was damaged, only the front part of the engine suffered the hit. The photo of the cattle-hit Vande Bharat express went viral on Thursday soon after the accident took place at around 11.15am.
The front part of the engine got damaged after 3-4 buffaloes came on the railway line. But the accident did not stop the train which moved right after removing the carcasses within eight minutes and reached Gandhinagar on time.
The Vande Bharat Express train suffered damage after it hit cattle on the track.
The Vande Bharat train after being repaired on Thursday.
Engineers pose in front of the train after repairing the front part of the Vande Bharat train.
“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,” an official said. “Railway keeps a sufficient nose-cones as spare. It was replaced with a new one in the Mumbai Central depot in no time during the maintenance and the train is put back to service without any extra down time,” the official said adding that the train departed from Mumbai on Friday without any inconvenience to the passengers.
The accident started to take a political turn with some Congress leaders questioning the durability of the India-made Vande Bharat Express. Even the official Twitter handle of the party too raised the same question. Congress’s Nitin Agarwal posted the photo of the inauguration of the Vande Bharat Express by PM Modi and the viral photo after yesterday’s accident. “Ghar se nikalte hi…kuch door chalte hi..,” Agarwal wrote.
The Vande Bharat train between Mumbai Central and Gandhinagar was inaugurated by PM Modi on September 30.
“The Vande Bharat express running between Mumbai Central and Gandhinagar Capital stations had left Mumbai this morning. The front portion of the train’s engine got damaged after it hit some buffaloes that came on track around 11.15 am. The incident took place between Vatva and Maninagar areas of Ahmedabad,” Western Railway spokesperson Jitendra Kumar Jayant said.
“The driver of the train was fully alert. He immediately blew the train’s whistle and also applied brakes, but the reaction time was less,” Western Railway chief public relations officer Sumit Thakur said adding that the Western Railway is going to undertake fencing work on the Gandhinagar-Ahmedabad section to increase the speed of the train to 160 kmph and avoid such incidents in the future.