Northeast Frontier Railway (NFR) gets ready to run Vistadome tourist special trains in two identified popular routes having tourism potential including one between Guwahati-New Haflong.
The other Vistadome tourist special train will be run between New Jalpaiguri-Alipurduar Junction.
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The service of these two trains with Vistadone coaches will be started with effect from Saturday.
While talking to media persons at Guwahati Railway Station on Friday, Anshul Gupta, General Manager, NF Railway briefed about the unique features of Vistadome coaches that are being introduced over NFR.
Senior Railway officials and officials from the Assam Tourism department were also present during the interaction.
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During the interaction with media persons, the NF Railway General Manager said the introduction of Vistadome tourist trains is meant to experience the scenic beauty and to display the cultural heritage of the region during the unique train journey.
The NF Railway GM wished that joint efforts with the tourism department will help boost the tourism sector and the economy.
“This train would provide comfort and ease of travel experience throughout the journey,” the NFR General Manager said.
Anshul Gupta while talking about the unique features of Vistadome coaches said the Vistadome coaches are equipped with state-of-the-art glass windows and all-glass roofs, providing 360-degree view of the open sky, mountains, tunnels, bridges, hills and lush green forests to the tourists.
It will also have observation lounges for the purpose of site-seeing.
The rotational seats of the coach are designed to provide added comfort to passengers.
Coaches are also equipped with digital entertainment system and Wi-Fi facilities.
Tourists can enjoy the entire travel by enjoying infotainments like movies and music videos.
Wi-Fi based passenger information system is also provided.
For the safety of passengers, CCTV cameras and fire alarm system are also installed.
The special Vistadome train service between Guwahati-New Haflong section will initially run two days a week – every Wednesday and Saturday with stoppages at Manderdisa and Maibong stations, Gupta said.
The train will depart from Guwahati at 6-35 am and reach New Haflong at 11-55 am covering a distance of 269 km through the North Cachar Hill region.
During the return journey, the train will leave New Haflong at 5-00 pm to reach Guwahati at 10-45 pm.
The other Vistadome special train service between New Jalpaiguri-Alipurduar Jn section will initially run three days a week – every Friday, Saturday and Sunday.
The train will depart from New Jalpaiguri at 7-20 am and reach Alipurduar Junction at 1.00 pm covering a distance of 169 km through the Dooars Hill region of North Bengal.
During the return journey, the train will leave Alipurduar Jn at 2-00 pm to reach New Jalpaiguri at 7-00 pm.
The train will have stoppages at Siliguri Jn, Sivok, New Mal Jn, Chalsa, Madarihat, Hasimara and Raja Bhat Khawa stations.
It is expected that the introduction of the Vistadome trains will help generate additional revenue for railway and also for local people of these areas.
Northeast Frontier Railway hopes that the initiative to boost the tourism sector of Assam and North Bengal will be very well-patronised by the local people as well as by the visitors from other states.