Western Railway has completed the metal fencing work on 357 route kilometres (RKM) on Mumbai- Ahmedabad section in a bid to curb cattle- related accident by trains including semi-high speed Vande Bharat Express
The work for erecting the metal barrier on the stretch was started in January this year.
The zonal railway plans to construct a metal barrier on the 623 RKM at a cost of around Rs 245 crore. As of now, Indian Railways’ Western Railway zone (WR) has completed the work of fencing along the tracks to curb the incidents of cattle runover.
The move comes following the multiple- incident cattle-hit by Vande Bharat Express. Between March and May last year, there have been 75 incidents of cattle being run over in this section. The number came down to 55 during the same period this year, the data shows.
The metal beam fencing has been completed in 150 route kilometres in the Mumbai Central division, 175 RKM in the Vadodara division, and 31 RKM in the Ahmedabad division.
The Vande Bharat Express train from Mumbai to Ahmedabad is one of the 17 such trains that currently operate in India. It generally makes journey through broad, open fields as it passes through rural Gujarat and Maharashtra therefore, there have been several cattle accidents that have also damaged the train