The Railway Protection Force (RPF) in Gujarat registered a case against the owners of buffaloes that were hit by the Mumbai-Gandhinagar Vande Bharat express, in which the front portion of the train was damaged, officials said.
The nose cone cover of the driver coach of the semi-high speed train, which got damaged after hitting the buffaloes, was replaced with a new one in Mumbai. The newly-launched Vande Bharat train had 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, the officials said.
Jitendra Kumar Jayant, WR’s senior spokesperson (Ahmedabad division) 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”
RPF inspector Pradeep Sharma posted at Vatva railway station said the FIR was filed under section 147 of the Railways Act, 1989, which deals with unauthorised entry into any part of a railway and misuse of its property, adding, The FIR was registered on Thursday evening in connection with the incident in which four buffaloes were killed”.
The train’s damaged nose cone cover made up of FRP (fibre-reinforced plastic) was replaced with a new one in Mumbai, the WR said in a statement.
Sumit Thakur, WR’s chief public relations officer said “The nose cone cover of the train’s driver coach along with its mounting brackets was damaged in the cattle-hit incident. However, the vital parts of the train remained unaffected. The damaged nose cone was replaced at the Coach Care Centre in Mumbai Central, adding, after the incident on Thursday, the train had covered the distance to Gandhinagar Capital station and back to Mumbai Central without the nose cover panel as there was no damage to its train’s vital parts, he said. “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,” Thakur added. Railway keeps sufficient nose-cones as spare, he said.
According to the official, the Western Railway is taking all necessary measures to prevent such incidents in future.
