Ahmedabad, Jul 30 (PTI) The fencing of the entire 562-km of railway tracks between Ahmedabad and Mumbai, a first-of-its-kind initiative, has led to a significant reduction in the incidents of high-speed trains like Vande Bharat running over cattle, the Western Railway said on Wednesday.
Only 101 such incidents were reported during 2024-25 compared to 538 in 2022-23, said a WR official.
The Railways decided to install a `W beam’ fence, an anti-crash barrier used by the National Highway Authority of India (NHAI), after the Mumbai Central-Gandhinagar Vande Bharat train hit several cattle near Ahmedabad in October 2022. The nose cone of the train was damaged in the incident, said WR’s chief public relations officer Vineet Abhishek.
After the fencing was installed, the route has reported only 12 cattle collisions in 2025-26 as of July 23, compared to 27 such incidents during the same period last year, he said.
The route had witnessed 538 such incidents in 2022-23, followed by 289 in 2023-24.
The fencing was installed to prevent cows and bulls, buffalos and blue bulls from straying on the railway tracks, Abhishek said.
The Mumbai-Vadodara-Ahmedabad section of the WR is the only long stretch of track of Indian Railways which has become cattle-proof, he said, adding that it would enable increasing the speed of trains to 160 kmph.
“The WR is actively monitoring the performance and taking countermeasures deriving from the learnings in order to keep the fencing effective. Further, the WR is also trying other options, namely, fixed-knot fencing in Ahmedabad -Palanpur section which has been identified to run trains at 130 kmph,” Abhishek said.
Soon after the October 2022 incident, the WR’s Railway Protection Force (RPF) identified various vulnerable locations and carried out frequent awareness and sensitisation campaigns in nearby villages, he said.
“The RPF conducted meetings with the sarpanches of all villages in the vicinity of railway tracks and counselled local residents including cattle grazers,” the chief PRO added. PTI KA PD KRK
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