The Western Railway (WR) announced on Friday that it would install fences along the Mumbai-Ahmedabad route by May next year to prevent animals from straying onto the tracks and being run over by trains, following the prestigious Vande Bharat Express hitting cattle four times since its launch on September 30.
WR General Manager Ashok Kumar Misra told press conference at the railway zone’s headquarters in Churchgate here that tenders have been invited for the construction of the fences on the 620-kilometer-long route, which is expected to cost Rs 264 crore.
The third semi-high-speed Vande Bharat Express, which began service between Gandhinagar in Gujarat and the country’s financial capital on September 30, has hit cattle four times, causing minor damage to the aerodynamic nose of the state-of-the-art rake.
On Thursday evening, an incident occurred between the stations of Udvada and Vapi in Gujarat.
The stainless steel fences will be a “w-beam” structure 1.5 metres above the ground, according to Western Railway officials.
”We are going to install it (w-beam) at a height of 1.5 meters. The advantage is that people can cross it but not animals,” Misra explained.
He stated that railway employees and members of the Railway Protection Force are visiting villages along the tracks to speak with residents in order to solve the problem of cattle straying into the path of trains.
The nose’s aerodynamic design prevents animals from becoming entangled in the rake’s underbelly after such collisions, Misra said.
WR chief public relations officer Sumit Thakur said the Vande Bharat service had an average occupancy of 130% and had become extremely popular with passengers.