Jaipur: Though the Covid-19 positive cases are increasing in Rajasthan, the government is hopeful of a good tourist season in winter this year. looking at this the luxury royal train Palace on Wheels is likely to be back on track from September this year. Rajasthan Tourism Development Corporation is expected to ink a new agreement with Indian Railways for this soon.
The tourism sector is going through a bad phase for the last two years in Rajasthan because of the pandemic Covid-19. The Palace on Wheels is one of the major attractions of the Rajasthan tourism industry but the train has to be halted as there were no foreign or domestic tourists due to pandemic.
Now, though the Covid-19 positive cases are increasing the pace is slow and officials are hopeful that the situation will remain under control.
The tourist season starts in September in the state and Rajasthan Tourism Development Corporation (RTDC) is working to resume its premium attraction Palace on Wheels. The recently appointed chairmen of the RTDC Dharmendra Rathore has done some meetings with Indian Railways to resume the train.
The RTDC will have to clear its dues of around Rs. 42 crore to resume the train. According to officials, the outstanding amount includes about Rs 27 crore on account of haulage and other charges of another luxury train Rajasthan Royals on Wheel, which now has been surrendered. In addition to this, there was some pending share of Rs12 crore of railways from Palace on Wheel.
The process to clear the dues has been started with the payment of the first instalment of Rs 5 crore.
RTDC chairman Dharmendra Rathore said that RTDC has started clearing the outstanding towards the railways and released a sum of ₹5 crores. A new agreement will be inked with the railways very soon
It is to mention here that the revenue sharing between railways and RTDC is in the ratio of 56: 44, but the distribution pattern has changed and the RTDC will have to pay haulage charges according to the Bharat Gaurav train policy.
The railway has sent the draft agreement according to the new policy and work to renovate the train will start after the agreement is sealed.
The luxury train has an average occupancy of 60-70 per cent and to increase the occupancy the RTDC is considering making the tariffs more affordable. ‘We are considering reducing the tariff to increase the occupancy,’ said Rathore,
Under different categories, the tariff of the trains, currently is from Rs 55,000 to Rs1.53 lakh.
