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Lure on wheels
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Rajasthan is set to woo tourists with more luxury trains
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Rajasthan is all set to offer more luxuries to foreign and domestic tourists. The State Tourism Ministry has taken a step in this direction by finalising a new hotel policy, and also decided on launching one more Palace on Wheels train besides another royal luxury train connecting the popular tourist places. Announcing the policy, Vinod Zutshi, Secretary, Tourism, Rajasthan said, "The new policy is to introduce special reserve price and incentive packages for hotels in the State. Besides, the Rajasthan Tourism Development Corporation is working on to add more luxury liners like the existing Palace on Wheels. Called Palace on Wheels-II and Heritage on Wheels, these two luxury liners would start running on broad gauge track by 2008."
Explaining the policy, Zutshi said, "It aims to ensure easy availability of land for building hotels. It promises special reserve price for the purpose at half the existing commercial price. It will work for the increase of rooms and facilitate civil aviation and road transport too. And of course, this policy will set an example in the history of the Indian tourism with world-class train tourism. A tourist wishing to enjoy a merry royal ride will need to pay between 150-300 U.S. dollars."
Tourist hub
Talking about the development of tourism in Rajasthan, Zutshi said, "The RTDC is working towards developing hotels and tourist sites. At present, we operate 45 units including hotels, motels, yatrikas and cafeterias with the available capacity of 914 rooms and transport centres. The Corporation wants to make Rajasthan one of the most sought after tourist hubs in the world. The new hotel policy is a step in this direction."
According to Zutshi, the travellers would be given the finest luxury amenities inside the running cars. The Palace on Wheels has 14 deluxe saloons with wall-to-wall carpeting, magnificent interiors, two plush dining cars and a car with exotic drinks from all over the world with personalised service.
One can get regal treatment aboard the train, which will have stops at Delhi, Jaipur, Jaisalmer, Jodhpur, Chittorgarh, Udaipur, Agra and Bharatpur.
On the other hand, Heritage on Wheels has already been running on the Bikaner-Shekhawati meter gauge circuit since this February. It has nine luxury saloons with two restaurant cars and a bar-cum-lounge car. This train can accommodate 72 passengers with a possibility of 36 extra beds.
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