Gandhinagar-bound Vande Bharat train rams into cattle in Gujarat, front panel damaged
third incident this month
Mumbai (PTI): The Mumbai-Gandhinagar Vande Bharat Superfast Express rammed into cattle near Atul station in Gujarat on Saturday morning, causing a delay of 20 minutes in reaching its destination, a railway official said.
Railway sources said the incident left the train's front panel damaged and also dented the underbelly equipment of its first coach. This is the third such incident involving this semi-high speed train so far this month.
The incident occurred around 8.20 am, the official said.
The train rammed into the cattle that came on to the track near Atul railway station. The train was stranded for nearly about 20 minutes due to the incident, before it resumed its journey towards Gandhinagar, he said.
"The train did not suffer any operational damage. It resumed further journey in 20 minutes," said Sumit Thakur, chief public relations officer of Western Railway, adding that all the passengers onboard the train were safe.
On October 6, four buffaloes were killed after being hit by this train on its way to Gandhinagar from Mumbai between Vatva and Maninagar railway stations in Gujarat. Its nose panel had to be replaced overnight due to the damage. In the second such incident that occurred the next day (October 7), the train had hit a cow near Anand in Gujarat while on its way to Mumbai.
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.
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Pakistan reports two more polio cases; Total tally now 52
ISLAMABAD: At least two more cases of poliovirus were reported in Pakistan, taking the number of infections to 52 so far this year, a report said on Friday.
“The Regional Reference Laboratory for Polio Eradication at the National Institute of Health has confirmed the detection of two more wild poliovirus type 1 (WPV1) cases in Pakistan," an official statement said.
The fresh infections — a boy and a girl — were reported from the Dera Ismail Khan district of Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa province.
“Genetic sequencing of the samples collected from the children is underway," the statement read. Dera Ismail Khan, one of the seven polio-endemic districts of southern Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province, has reported five polio cases so far this year.
Of the 52 cases in the country this year, 24 are from Balochistan, 13 from Sindh, 13 from Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, and one each from Punjab and Islamabad.
There is no cure for polio. Only multiple doses of the oral polio vaccine and completion of the routine vaccination schedule for all children under the age of five can keep them protected.
