Mumbai-Gandhinagar Vande Bharat train rams into cattle; front panel damaged

The Mumbai-Gandhinagar Vande Bharat Superfast Express rammed into cattle near Atul station in Gujarat on Saturday morning, causing a delay of 20 minutes in reaching its destination, a railway official said.

Railway sources said the incident left the train's front panel damaged and also dented the underbelly equipment of its first coach.

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This is the third such incident involving this semi-high speed train so far this month.

The incident occurred around 8.20 am, the official said.

The train rammed into the cattle that came on to the track near Atul railway station. The train was stranded for nearly about 20 minutes due to the incident, before it resumed its journey towards Gandhinagar, he said.

"The train did not suffer any operational damage. It resumed further journey in 20 minutes," said Sumit Thakur, chief public relations officer of Western Railway, adding that all the passengers onboard the train were safe.

On October 6, four buffaloes were killed after being hit by this train on its way to Gandhinagar from Mumbai between Vatva and Maninagar railway stations in Gujarat. Its nose panel had to be replaced overnight due to the damage. In the second such incident that occurred the next day (October 7), the train had hit a cow near Anand in Gujarat while on its way to Mumbai.

The indigenously designed and manufactured semi-high speed train, the third service under the Vande Bharat series, was flagged off by Prime Minister Narendra Modi on September 30 from Gandhinagar Capital and it started the commercial run from the next day.