The Indian Railways has decided to make luxury trains like Palace on Wheels, Golden Chariot and Maharaja Express more affordable by reducing the tariff by as much as 50 per cent. The tariff on such trains as of now is in thousands, making the experience unaffordable for common man.
The move follows the Railway Ministry’s decision to slash the haulage charges borne by the State Tourism Departments, partners or stakeholders like IRCTC which run the trains in coordination with the network of Indian Railways.
Not only this, in yet another decision, private persons, who till date had only read about the luxury saloons or the inspection coaches used by the President of India, Prime Minister and top railway officials, can now hire the two-bedroom carriage with a lounge, kitchen and toilet setup aboard a train to enjoy a luxurious journey.
In a bid to reverse the trends, the Railway Board on March 01 reviewed the policy on luxury trains. In the meeting, it decided to slash the present haulage charges by 50 percent and put out a commercial notification in this regard. The saloon journey will, however, be quite expensive. Officials say that saloons or inspection cars are adequately built to facilitate stay for up to five days. The Railways has a total of 336 saloon cars across railway zones, among them 62 are air-conditioned.
The railways are also conducting aerial surveys using drones. One such survey was done at Elphinstone Road-Parel.