Bottle crushers, deep freezer, revolving seats among many features in Vande Bharat Express

The Delhi-Katra Vande Bharat Express, which was flagged off on Thursday, boasts of having a host of features on board including plastic bottle crusher machines, a spacious pantry with a deep freezer, revolving seats and cattle guard, officials said on Thursday.

The train was flagged off from the New Delhi Railway Station by Union Home Minister Amit Shah, who was accompanied by Railway Minister Piyush Goyal, Union ministers Jitendra Singh and Harsh Vardhan.

The train to Shri Mata Vaishno Devi in Katra will be running at a maximum speed of 130 km/hour and will cover the distance in eight hours, cutting the travel time by four hours.

The train boasts of having bottle crushing machines for disposing off plastic bottles in view of Prime Minister Narendra Modi's message against single use plastic, an official said.

"In the first and the last coach, bottle crushing machines have been installed for disposing off plastic bottles. This has been done so that dumping off plastic waste can be reduced on the railway lines," the official said.

He said the number of machines might be increased depending on the space.

The train has revolving seats that be turned around to 180 degrees, 16 air conditioned coaches, including two executive class coaches and sensor doors that connect the coaches.

The pantry has also been made more spacious. ROs, one deep freezer for storing ice cream and welcome drinks, three hot cases and two bottle coolers have also been installed.

The train has continuous windows and the glasses have been provided with anti-spall films, the official said.

Roller blind sun screen has been provided on the look out glass to protect train pilots from glare and improved insulation has been provided to reduce noise level in the driver's cab.

Phone handsets have been provided for direct communication between train pilots and guard. Commercial run of the train will begin from October 5 and it will run on all days of the week except Tuesday.