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Vistadome on tracks today: Take a Mumbai-Goa ride on coach with glass roof, rotating chairs and LCD TVs
The Vistadome coach’s features include wide windowpanes and a roof that turns transparent with a button.
The Central Railway is introducing its first Vistadome coach, which has a glass roof, rotating chairs and LCD television, on the Mumbai-Goa route from Monday.
A Vistadome (glass-top) coach will be attached to the Jan Shatabdi Express running between Dadar and Madgaon from September 18, the Central Railway’s chief public relations officer Sunil Udasi said on Saturday.
This Rs 3.38 crore coach was received by the railways at its headquarters, the Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj Terminus, in the first week of September.
Features
The Vistadome is a first-of-its-kind coach with a glass top in the Indian Railways.
It’s special features include wide windowpanes and a roof that turns transparent with a button. Passengers will be able see the entire landscape of the Western Ghats.
The seats of the coach rotate 360 degrees with pushback facility. It also has 12 LCD television screens for entertainment, a mini fridge, automatic sliding compartment doors, an oven, juicer grinder and toilets fitted with ceramic tiles.
Passenger information
There are 40 seats in a Vistadome coach and a single ticket will cost Rs 2,235, equivalent to the executive class fare for the Shatabdi Express. The reservation charges, GST and any other charges will be levied in addition to the basic fare, Usadi said.
“There shall be no concession and all passengers will be charged at full fare. Minimum chargeable distance shall be 50km,” the official added.
Jan Shatabdi Express departs at 5.25am from Dadar and it reaches Madgaon at 4pm the same day. The train will run three times a week during the monsoon period and five days a week once the monsoon gets over.
Bookings
The booking for the coaches, built at The Integral Coach Factory (ICF) in Chennai, opened at all computerised reservation centres and on IRCTC website on Sunday, the official said.
Former railway minister Suresh Prabhu, while launching the initiative a few months back, had said the Vistadome coaches were being introduced for the first time in the country to promote tourism.
(With PTI inputs)
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