Assam: To boost the tourism sector on the routes of Assam and West Bengal, Indian Railways has decided to operate dedicated Vistadome Express trains, and for the first time that on a single day two trains with Vistadome coaches began their operations in the beautiful areas of North Bengal and Assam.

The development of Railway infrastructure is fundamental to the revival and deepening of the tourism sector in India especially in the northeast especially. An integrated approach in rolling out of tourism connectivity routes through Vistadome coaches will not only help the Indian Railway but also play a pivotal role in realizing India’s potential tourism business and deepening the tourism sector in India. And seeing the pandemic situation and its market urgency, there is an urgent need for policy measures to provide for improved tourism-related regional connectivity in the northeast, especially through a progressive rollout of Vistadome coaches coupled with private sector participation, said Vishnu Sudarsan, Partner, J Sagar Associates.

The Indian Railways will benefit from introducing PPP measures in generating revenue for Indian Railways in respect of railway tourism and tourism-related railway infrastructure. In this regard, IRCTC will have a significant role in providing end-to-end ticketing and tourism packages, attracting private capital and private participation will help achieve efficiency and quality in service delivery. Lastly, there is an urgent need for an integrated policy approach to help the investment to unlock the opportunity," he further said.

The trains will be operated by the Northeast Frontier Railway (NFR) zone of Indian Railways.

NFR chief public relations officer Guneet Kaur said, "Introduction of these Vistadome trains will help to generate additional revenue for the railway and also for local people of these areas and hopes that the initiative to boost the tourism sector of Assam and North Bengal will be very well patronized by the local people as well as by visitors from other states." NFR general manager Anshul Gupta said the special trains will be run on the two routes considering the immense tourism potential in the sector.

Moreover, if we talk about the features of the Vistadome coaches, it will have large glass windows and glass roofs to provide a 360-degree view of the open sky, mountains, tunnels, bridges, hills, and lush green forests to the tourists and will also have observation lounges for site seeing.