Tour packs, shopping to pep up Shatabdi

For those looking for short escapes from the Capital, northern railways’ Shatabdi Express could soon be the most comfortable option. Sidhartha Roy reports.

For those looking for short escapes from the Capital, northern railways’ Shatabdi Express could soon be the most comfortable option.

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The Indian Railway Catering & Tourism Corporation (IRCTC) is planning new affordable tourism packages around Shatabdi routes and railways is going to start on board shopping on the trains soon.

A travel guide, Holidays by Shatabdi, published by Lonely Planet, was unveiled by Anurag Kumar Sachan, divisional railway manager, Northern Railway, on Monday.

The guide book would provide comprehensive details and tips on 30 trips from Delhi that can be made by Shatabdi express.

This includes destinations along the Shatabdi routes starting from Delhi to Kathgodam, Dehradun, Kalka, Amritsar, Ajmer and Bhopal.

The travel guide elucidates the sights, fun activities, accommodation, eating options at these destinations, apart from Shatabdi’s time schedule and transport options to and from the train stations.

“We had started a pilot project on on-board shopping for a month and now it’s going to become a regular feature on all Shatabdis,” said Sachan.

Sanjay Kumar Jain, group general manager, IRCTC, said there are packages available based on Shatabdi routes. “The packages take care of everything from travel to accommodation and food. Tourists wouldn’t have to worry about reservations also,” he said.

“The number of domestic travel by Indians is much higher than travelling abroad. That is why we wanted to bring the Lonely Planet experience to train travellers,” said Sesh Sheshadri, general manager, Lonely Planet India.

“Shatabdi makes short trips and this book focuses on such short trips from the capital. We would come out with similar guide books for other cities as well,” Sheshadri said.