Indian Railways to transform 200 saloons in luxury tourist trains

The railways will be converting 200 saloons into 10 luxury tourist trains in India in order to control the use of the colonial era-style coaches, and also to increase its income.
Reportedly, the carriages were made to be used only as inspection cars by the railway officials to visit distant locations, the saloons feature two bedrooms, a lounge, a pantry, and a toilet and a kitchen which are meant to sustain a five-day-long journey.

This time, a certain number of saloons will be reserved for the use of railway officials for inspection, 200 carriages will be used by the IRCTC as tourist trains. Once converted into tourist coaches, ten coaches will set aside for public use.
As per the press reports, the railway board has made a list of instructions for its zones to regulate the number and use of such saloons. The instructions also state that the saloons should be only used for inspection with emphasis on safety. Every railway division will get a self-driven inspection car with windows at both sides.

Currently, the railways have 336 saloon cars across all the zones, of which many have already been in bad shape; only 62 of them are air-conditioned.

The first privately-occupied saloon coach with air-conditioned rooms, attached bathroom etc. was run by the IRCTC in March last year.

Once routes are made final, details regarding booking the saloons will be given on the IRCTC website.