City Reports

Palace on Wheels to finally start operating from Oct 12; 20 cabins booked

Rajasthan Tourism Development Corporation (RTDC) will run Palace on Wheels till December.

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October 2, 2022, 8:32 am

palace on wheels

Palace on Wheels. file photo.

JAIPUR: Palace on Wheels (PoW) will start running from October 12. Nearly 20 out of 41 cabins in the train have already been booked. The train which had stopped running about two and a half years ago is very popular among foreign tourists as they get to experience the rich royal heritage of Rajasthan.

 The trial run kicked off on Thursday. Rajasthan Tourism Development Corporation (RTDC) will run Palace on Wheels till December. Its operation and management (O&M) will be handed over to private companies after that.

The train will now run under the Bharat Gaurav policy of the Railways. Before Covid-19, the train was profitable. RTDC had made a profit of about Rs 1.5 crores from the last trip of this train. Pradeep Bohra has again been made Consultant GM of PoW. Bohrao has 30 years of experience in operating trains and at the same time he has a good rapport with railway officials.

A senior RTDC official said that Palace on Wheels is about to get back on track. But RTDC did not pay TA-DA to more than 50 employees of PoW for the last three years. Sources said that about 50 employees have TA-DA arrears of about Rs 99.65 lakh for the years 2017-18, 2018-19 and 2019-20.

First published: October 2, 2022