Afghan war cuts luxury trains' net

jaipur: the afghanistan was has brought down the profits of palace on wheels. the prospective advanced bookings for the luxury train journey for the current season are now being cancelled. not only the foreigners, even the nris have put off their travel plans. the unique palace on wheels, which has a capacity of 110, carried only 30 passengers recently and the trip proved a big loss to the rajasthan tourism development corporation.the corporation has now embarked upon entirely different tourism marketing strategies ^ one of these is throwing the luxury service open to the local residents and at more stations than usual. the train will also offer lunches to fun-loving gentry who are keen to dine in the luxurious places. the rtdc managers feel that a large number of persons in jaipur, jodhpur, agra, jaisalmer and delhi where the train stops would jump at the idea of enjoying meal in the luxury train. this could become a permanent feature thus using the train for catering to locals while the reserved guests of the train were away for sightseeing during day time. similar damage has been done to the royal orient also which is run by the gujarat tourism department. it was already doing bad right, ever since it had commenced running. the service has received further jolt now. the train attracts far less passengers than the palace on wheels and has accumulated heavy losses during past six years. earlier, the old metre gauge train was adopted by the state tourism department for promoting its tourist sites. but because of inadequate marketing gujarat tourism has not been able to run it on profit.recently, the state's tourism department has decided to run it on the western railways circuit. the rtdc has proposed that it can reduce the burden of the royal orient by making use of seven of its saloons and also the dining car. the corporation has also worked out a deal with the indian railways to use seven luxury saloons of the royal orient to run it in the shekhawati circuit which rajasthan tourism wants to promote. the shekhawati circuit, with its frescoed havelis and eco-tourism, has already started attracting large number of tourists. this apart, a new concept, village tourism, is being developed in association with the morarka foundation. the proposed shekhawati palace on wheels would run between delhi-jaipur-fatehpur-mandawa and bikaner. the tour will comprise four nights and three days and apart from food the rtdc will also arrange for siteseeing for its customers. the concept, the palace on wheel, was launched by using the original saloons of the maharajas of various principalities of the state. the original saloons were refurbished and made to run on metre gauge. but all the saloons were later withdrawn as it was found un safe due to their worn-out conditions. identical coaches, therefore, were built-up on the metre gauge. however, converted into broad gauge, the rtdc had to go for similar trains. ironically, the original coaches owned by the royalties are now gathering dust in the western railway carriage workshop at ajmer. these saloons had unique rare furniture and fittings imported by the erstwhile princes. meanwhile, a scion of the udaipur royalty, aravind singh mewar, has struck a deal with the railways for a heritage train drawn by a steam engine from gajner to gajner palace near bikaner.