Vande Bharat Accident: No Functional Part Damaged, Train Back In Service Without Downtime

The train was repaired at the Mumbai Central depot, where it was fitted with a new nose cone cover and was quickly back in service.

New Delhi: The Vande Bharat Express running between Mumbai Central and Gujarat's Gandhinagar has been repaired at Mumbai Central depot, according to ANI. The train hit 3-4 buffaloes on Thursday which damaged the nose cone cover, however, no issue was reported to any functional part of the train. The incident occurred at 11:18 am between Gairatpur-Vatva station.

According to ANI, the train was moved within 8 minutes after the carcasses were removed from the train line. 

The Western Railway CPRO told the news agency, that the new nose cone cover was replaced in the Mumbai Central depot and that train was back in service soon after. 

"Nose Cone Cover of the front coach was replaced with a new one in Mumbai Central depot during the maintenance & the train is put back into service without any extra downtime. We're taking all actions to prevent such types of incidents in future", ANI quoted the CPRO.

The Gandhinagar to Mumbai Vande Bharat Express was launched on September 30 in the presence of Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Railway Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw. This is the third Vande Bharat train in the country, the other two being run between New Delhi - Varanasi and New Delhi - Shri Mata Vaishno Devi Katra.

The Vande Bharat train 20901, from Mumbai Central departs at 6.10 am to reach Gandhinagar at 12.30 pm, officials said adding that the return train- 20902 to Mumbai departa Gandhinagar station at 2.05 pm to reach Mumbai Central at 8.35 pm.

The train has a seating capacity of 1,128 passengers. It has 16 coaches and will halt at three stations: Surat, Vadodara, and Ahmedabad before reaching Gandhinagar Capital station.

Several changes have been made in the third Vande Bharat train,including reclining seats, automatic fire sensors, CCTV cameras, on-demand content with wifi Facility, three-hour battery backup and GPS systems. Aside from this, weight of the train has been reduced by 38 tonnes to 392 tonnes and it can continue functioning even with two feet of flood waters on the tracks. These are made of stainless steel.