FIR in Gujarat against the owners of the buffaloes injured by the Vande Bharat express; train's damaged nose cover replaced

The Railway Protection Force (RPF) in Gujarat has filed a case against the owners of buffaloes hit by the Mumbai-Gandhinagar Vande Bharat express, causing damage to the train's front section, officials said on Friday.

The semi-high speed train's driver coach's nose cone cover, which was damaged when it hit the buffaloes, was changed with a new one in Mumbai, according to a statement from the Western Railway (WR).

Around 11.15 am on Thursday near Ahmedabad, the recently launched Mumbai Central-Gandhinagar Vande Bharat train hit the herd of buffaloes. The train was headed to Gandhinagar. The incident resulted in the deaths of four buffaloes, according to the authorities.


"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," WR's senior spokesperson (Ahmedabad division) Jitendra Kumar Jayant said

The FIR was registered under section 147 of the Railways Act, 1989, which deals with unauthorised access into any part of a railway and exploitation of its property, according to RPF inspector Pradeep Sharma posted at Vatva railway station.


He stated, "The FIR was registered on Thursday evening in connection with the incident in which four buffaloes were killed." The railway police are working to identify the owners of the buffaloes, he said, but they have not yet been successful. Sharma noted that the incident had taken place on the outskirts of Ahmedabad city in the Punitnagar neighbourhood close to Vatva railway station.


The train's damaged FRP (fibre-reinforced plastic) nose cone cover was replaced out in Mumbai, according to a statement from the WR.

"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", according to Sumit Thakur, chief public relations officer at WR.


The train had operated from Mumbai Central to Gandhinagar Capital station without the nose cover panel following the incident on Thursday because there had been no damage to the train's essential components, 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.

He stated that the railroad always has enough extra nose cones.

"The damaged nose cone was replaced in no time and the train was put back to service without any extra down time. The train departed from Mumbai today without any inconvenience to the passengers," he said.

The Western Railway is implementing all required precautions, the spokesman said, to stop similar situations from happening again. Prime Minister Narendra Modi launched the third service in the Vande Bharat series—an indigenously constructed and designed semi-high speed train—on September 30 from Gandhinagar Capital, and the commercial run started the next day.