New Delhi: With a sitting capacity of near about 530 passengers and about Rs 60 crores spent on the eight coaches, the newly launched Vande Bharat Express from Tirunelveli to Chennai is equipped with all the measures to keep the passengers safe. A senior official of the Ministry of Railways, who spoke to ETV on the condition of anonymity, said, "This Vande Bharat Express has got some new features. The newly designed seats have been widened more as compared to the previous and their angle of inclination has been increased."
"Apart from this, keeping in view the safety and security of our passengers, we've equipped CCTV cameras in all coaches and in the Vestibule area. Apart from this, earlier the pilot and the guard used to communicate via walkie-talkie, but now that has been changed and now they can communicate via a direct mic that has been installed in their screen area."
On several occasions incidents of smoking on the moving train and the subsequent halts that followed, the official said, "There was an incident in the recent past that a passenger after smoking on the train hid inside the washroom and it created a lot of problems. Now, everything is monitored and if someone is found doing any negative action, he would be penalised."
"And, the train will move only once all the doors are closed", he said. On the safety measures taken to ensure the safety of the train, the official said "We do our monitoring on continuously. We check oil and greasing, other issues and most importantly the breaking system. So, there's no need to worry." Answering a question on the total amount spent, the official said that he was unaware of this and wouldn't be able to pass a comment.
Another high-ranking official said, "The maximum speed of this train is 160 km per hour and we have done our best to equip it with modern facilities. The leg space has been widened, the windows are big and provision for wheelchairs for physically challenged and elderly passengers."
Earlier, the trains were equipped with chains in order to stop i,t but in this train, we've installed an Emergency Talk Back Unity that is equipped with a button. On the companies involved in this, he said that "Knorr-Bremse handles the braking system, SAIL provides us the steel, propulsion system is by Medha and others."
