The dream of taking a tour aboard the 'Palace on Wheels' will not remain just a dream anymore for the budget tourist with the Rajasthan government firming up plans to launch two more luxury trains to suit the pockets of economy travellers.
The 'Royal Orient,' a meter-gauge train, is ready for an October debut, while its sibling 'Deccan Queen,' running at a loss in the south, could get a makeover and a new name to take tourists around the picturesque state of deserts and forts.
Rajasthan Minister of State for Tourism Usha Punia told a press meet in Kolkata on Monday that the Palace of Wheels had generated a profit of Rs 6 crore (Rs 60 million) in the last fiscal and this had enthused the Rajasthan Tourism Development Corporation to think of similar low budget propositions.
"The Palace on Wheels is the premier tourism product in the country and has done record business in the current season. We are booked till 2009. The tariff is of international standard (Rs 17,000 per day) and prohibitive for medium tourists," Punia said.
The five-day tour on board Royal Orient beginning from Delhi, going to Bikaner and many historically important sites of Rajasthan, would cost somewhere between Rs 5,000 to Rs 10,000 per day, director of Rajasthan Tourism B L Gupta said.
"Talks are on with the Indian Railway to procure the Deccan Queen train and run it as a luxury train in Rajasthan," he said.
To a question Punia said RTDC would continue to run the Palace of Wheels on its own after the government's move to invite private participation failed.