The front portion of the Mumbai-Gandhinagar Vande Bharat Express train, which was damaged after hitting some buffaloes in Gujarat, has been replaced here by the railway authorities, an official said on Friday.
The nose of the newly-launched Mumbai Central-Gandhinagar Vande Bharat Express train had suffered damage after it hit a herd of buffaloes around 11.15 am on Thursday near Ahmedabad, when the train was on its way to Gandhinagar.
"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," Sumit Thakur, chief public relations officer of the Western Railway said.
The nose cone was made up of FRP (fibre-reinforced plastic).
The incident had occurred between Vatva and Maninagar areas of Ahmedabad, but the train had covered the distance to Gandhinagar Capital station and back to Mumbai Central without the panel on Thursday.
"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," Mr. Thakur said.
He said that a sufficient quantity of nose cones is kept as a spare.
"The damaged nose cone was replaced with a new one at the Mumbai Central depot in no time during the maintenance and the train was put back to service without any extra downtime. The train departed from Mumbai today without any inconvenience to the passengers," he added.
The Western Railway is taking all necessary action to prevent such incidents in future, he said.
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.
