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No decision yet on Palace on Wheels issue

Special Correspondent

JAIPUR: The Rajasthan tourism authorities have indicated that the move to outsource the services on the prestigious luxury train, the Palace on Wheels, is not final. Any decision in this regard would be taken keeping in mind the interest of the Rajasthan Tourism Development Corporation (RTDC), which runs the train in collaboration with the Indian Railways.

The top brass of the Department of Tourism and RTDC who interacted with mediapersons here on Wednesday said they were well aware of the sensitive nature of the move to privatise the services like catering and house keeping on the PoW by inviting tenders from five star chains. "It is only a notice of expression of interest,'' Vinod Zutshi, Principal Secretary, Tourism, said referring to the tender notices published sometime back.

The 1,200-strong staff of the RTDC is agitated over the move to privatize the services which include off board catering, sightseeing, transport and entertainment at PoW destinations.

"Palace on Wheels is our Kohinoor. The effort is to brighten it further,'' Mr.Zutshi said, refusing to talk more on the topic.

Even while the controversy over PoW outsourcing is raging, Rajasthan Tourism is getting ready to run more luxury trains. The State is now gearing up to take over the Royal Orient, a train which it had run as a joint venture with Gujarat sometime back.

"I myself went and saw the train at Mandsaur. The detail including the itinerary have to be worked out,'' Mr.Zutshi said pointing out that the State wanted to run a third train too, similar to PoW.

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