Heritage Palace On Wheels to run from Dec 1

Jaipur: The original luxury

train

, Palace on Wheels (PoW) that was re-christened the ‘Heritage Palace on Wheels’ will run its new itinerary from December 1, 2017 onwards.

While one is the standard ‘Golden Triangle’, the second itinerary will cover a sector that has never been touched via rail for tourism.

According to Pradeep Bohra, consultant general manager, Heritage Palace on Wheels and POW, “The Heritage Palace on Wheels was marketed recently at the World Travel Mart, London and there would be a meeting of the general sales agents on Wednesday in Jaipur to market the same. Starting December 1, the train will run four trips in December.”

There are two itineraries of the rechristened train. One would be the Golden Triangle, Delhi-Agra-Jaipur-Delhi as the previous POW also used to run. This would be a three nights’ programme. But the second one would be a four night schedule covering Delhi-Churu-Bikaner-Jaipur-Agra and Dholpur and back to Delhi.

“In Churu, tourists would be taken in a bus to explore the unexplored Shekhawati region. They would go to Tal Chapper and Ramgarh, Shekhawati and return to the train for an onward journey to Bikaner. Agra and Dholpur would be covered the same day with a lunch halt at Dholpur,” said Bohra.

The train however would retain the same exterior as the previous POW that for last 35 years of operation, had established itself as a prime tourism product and acquired a phenomenal image branding in the world travel trade. The exterior painting of the train and ‘jhrokhas’ has been done and the interior re-furbishing is going on. “All logistics for the tourists have been taken care of. The train would facilitate tourists wishing to go on shorter itineraries spending lesser money. The fare for both the 3/4 day itineraries has been fixed at USD 300 per night per person against the 650 USD of the earlier POW,” he said.

The decision to run the old POW on shorter itinerary was taken by N C Goel, ACS (tourism) and chairman of RTDC. The old POW was discontinued following intimation from the Integral Coach Factory (ICF) that the POW launched in 1994 had nearly completed its operational life and on account of corrosion-related problems and codal life basis, the rake had to be replaced.

“According to Railways guidelines, the total life of the train is 25 years and the train has already done 23 years. Practically, the new Heritage Palace on Wheels with the new itinerary has only two years on tracks and December 1, 2017 is too short a time to launch a new itinerary, however good,” feel stakehoders.