Few takers for railway’s luxury saloon coaches
Indian Railways is tweaking its plan to offer its saloon coaches to the public based on its experience over the first three months of the scheme and will offer fixed destinations and also not insist that the entire car be booked by one group, according to an official in the Indian Railway Catering and Tourism Corporation (IRCTC).
Since the scheme was launched on March 30, the saloon coaches have been booked only twice.
Mini-houses on wheels, saloon coaches are often used by railway officers for inspection but earlier this year, the IRCTC decided to give a luxury makeover to these coaches and open them to the public.
Currently, the person booking the coach can decide the destination, and pays the equivalent of the first class AC ticket fare on it, for 18 passengers.
Under the new plan, the IRCTC will launch the saloon coach for Jim Corbett National Park in Uttarakhand in February 2019 and several families will be able to book packages.
“The saloon coach has been booked twice in three months, once for Jammu and once for Pune. It costs around ~50,000 to ~1 lakh depending on the destination and we have been advertising about it on social media. We also plan to decide the destination in advance and allow several families to book it rather than just one family. If 2-3 families are ready to share the coach and split the fare, we have no problem,” said an IRCTC officer on the condition of anonymity.
The saloon has a living room, two air-conditioned bedrooms one twin bedroom and the other similar to an air conditioned First Class coupe with attached baths, dining area and a wellequipped kitchen. It also has a valet service.
“This is like a hotel on wheels. Based on destination, we attach the coach to the train going in that direction, with attendants in care of families. Maximum 18 passengers are allowed in the coach,” the officer added.
Northern railway has two saloon coaches that can be used by the public and if the scheme becomes popular, IRCTC says it can convert more coaches into luxury hotel rooms on wheels.
“Firstly I believe it is a marketing failure as I don’t think many people are aware of it,” said Lalit Panwar, former secretary of tourism ministry.
“Secondly, airlines are offering interesting packages at very low cost and the scheme by IRCTC is expensive by Indian standard. Also, a series of rail accidents have dented Indian Railways’ image and that can also be one of the reasons.”
NEW DELHI:
THE DEBATE
Regardless of whether MSPs need to go or stay and if better alternative mechanisms should be found, farmers are always going to need a federally-determined price policy. The Niti Aayog paper has argued in favour of a price deficiency payment system, under which a subsidy is given to farmers when prices fall below a certain level, possibly an average of past three-four years. “This approach would help prevent unwanted stocks and spread price incentives to producers in all the regions and all the crops considered important for providing price support,” it states.
The price deficiency model, which Madhya Pradesh experimented with, may be attractive. But it, too, has a flip side. Traders manipulated the model. They colluded to artificially pull down prices. Economists such as Haque and Mishra say price deficiency payments can potentially be a better alternative only with “necessary safeguards and corrective measures”.