A 54-year-old woman was run over by a Vande Bharat train near Gujarat's Anand on Tuesday, PTI quoted police as saying. The incident comes on the back of multiple instances of Vande Bharat train colliding with cattle in Gujarat.
The victim, identified as Beatrice Archibald Peter, was crossing the track when the accident took place at 4.37 pm.
Peter, a resident of Ahmedabad, was apparently visiting a relative in Anand when the incident happened. The train, which was on its way to Mumbai Central from Gandhinagar Capital station, does not have a halt at Anand.
The Vande Bharat semi-high speed express train service between the capital cities of Gujarat and Maharashtra was launched on September 30 by Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
However, since its launch, three incidents of the train colliding with cattle have taken place in Gujarat.
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In the last week of October, the Mumbai-Gandhinagar Vande Bharat train rammed into cattle near Atul station in Gujarat. Earlier, on October 6 and 7, the train collided with some cattle, resulting in damages to its front portion. No passenger was injured.
To curb such incidents, the Railway Protection Force has started issuing notices to the heads of villages located along the train's route in Maharashtra's Palghar, asking them not allow the animals roam unattended near the tracks, PTI reported.
The RPF has warned that if any cattle owner was found to be negligent, then legal action could be taken against him.
"Such cattle run-over incidents adversely affected the rail operations. Such incidents increase the possibility of rail accidents and can even lead to derailment. They not only cause disruption of rail traffic and loss of property of the railways, but also pose danger to passengers," Western Railway chief spokesperson Sumit Thakur told PTI.