NEW DELHI: Indian Railways plans to induct 10 new luxury trains for tourist circuits across the country at an estimated cost of over Rs 900 crore. The move comes at a time when the five existing luxury trains run at nearly half their capacity and do not generate any significant revenue.
According to railway sources, Railway Minister Piyush Goyal proposed the idea of adding more luxury trains while at the same time bringing down the fares of the highly priced trains, which offer world class hospitality on wheels including fine dining.
Chennai based Integral Coach Factory of Indian Railways has been asked to prepare a proposal for the new trains. The average cost of one luxury coach is estimated between Rs 5-6 crore.
“The idea is to have more luxury trains connecting tourist destinations in the country. A proposal is being worked in this direction,” said sources in the railway ministry.
Currently, there are five luxury trains that are operational, and their clientele mainly includes foreign tourists and non resident Indians.
These include: The Palace on Wheels and Royal Rajasthan on Wheels, operated by the Rajasthan Tourism Development Corporation (RTDC); The Maharajas’ Express run by the Indian Railway Catering and Tourism Corporation (IRCTC), a railways PSU; The Deccan Odyssey is a venture of the Maharashtra Government and Indian Railways; and the Golden Chariot, run by the Karnataka State Tourism Development Corporation (KSTDC).
The move comes even when a report of the Parliamentary Standing Committee on Railways released in December 2017 expressed surprise over the low revenue earned by these luxury trains. The committee noted that the total revenue earned by all these five trains from 2012-13 to 2016-17 has been Rs 497.31 crore, with an average of Rs 99.46 crore per year and railways share has been Rs 259.52 crore, or 52 per cent of the total revenue.
Until recently, Indian Railways was collecting haulage charges to cover its operation and maintenance expenditure in respect of luxury trains except in case of Palace on Wheels, where there’s a revenue sharing model of 56:44 between railways and RTDC. In November 2017, the railway ministry decided to do away with haulage charges and enter into revenue sharing model with Rajasthan Government. A similar request is pending from the Karnataka Government.