Railways undecided on luxury trains for three states

The much-hyped public private partnership (PPP) motto of the railway ministry seems to have gone nowhere, as the ministry continues to sit over proposals from at least three state governments to start luxury trains.

No headway has been made on the specific proposals of adding luxury coaches to the existing routes in Himachal Pradesh, Tamil Nadu and Karnataka for attracting foreign visitors, Rail Bhawan sources indicated.

These projects are stuck over issues related to revenue sharing, and whether a Central accounting body should govern the accounts of such trains, and whether private partnership should be initiated for adding more coaches in these trains, rail ministry sources indicated.

According to the proposal mooted by the tourism ministry, addition of luxury coaches in the already existing Kangra Valley railway and Nilgiri Mountain trains has to be completed by December 2007.

The Karnataka government had requested the railway ministry to grant it permission for running luxury trains through public private partnership (PPP) on lines of Palace on Wheels.

"These luxury coaches would have been modeled on the Palace on Wheels that runs between Delhi and Jaisalmer. Per person fare was proposed to be $150-$200 for shorter routes," a tourism ministry official indicated.

Once implemented, the average stay of foreign tourist in Himachal would have gone up from five days to eight days while it would have gone up to six days from three days in Tamil Nadu, sources said.

The Railways run luxury tourist trains in collaboration with the State Tourism Departments e.g. the Palace on Wheels in collaboration with the Rajasthan Tourism Corporation (RTDC), the Royal Orient Express with the Tourism Corporation of

Gujarat Ltd. (TCGL) and the Deccan Odyssey in collaboration with the Maharashtra Tourism Development Corporation (MTDC). An MOO has also been signed with the Karnataka State Tourism Development Corporation (KSTDC) for running such a luxury tourist train.

The costs and the revenue in these the PPP projects are shared by the Railways and the participating state in a predetermined ratio.