Soon, waiting for a train will not be an ordeal at many major railway stations across the country.
Starting with New Delhi railway station, the Indian Railway Catering and Tourism Corporation (IRCTC) is planning about 50 similar executive lounges at various railway stations.
On April 5, Agra Cantonment Railway station became the second in the country to boast an airport-like lounge. The inauguration of IRCTC’s lounge at the station coincided with the inaugural run of the country’s fastest train, the Delhi-Agra Gatimaan Express.
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Apart from these two, Jaipur railway station too has an executive lounge. The IRCTC has already awarded tenders for similar executive lounges at 19 more railway stations including Varanasi, Lucknow, Kanpur, Sealdah, Howrah, Guwahati, Patna, Vijayawada, Kathgodam, Bhubaneshwar, Vishakhapatnam, Ahmedabad, Puri, Nagpur, Madurai, Bengaluru, Ludhiana, Amritsar and Gorakhpur.
“The executive lounge at Agra Cantonment station boasts more features and comforts now compared to when it was opened in April. The facilities at the executive lounge at New Delhi station are at par with the best airports in the country and we are trying to offer similar facilities at Agra Cantonment and Jaipur stations too,” said a senior IRCTC official.
“We plan to have such lounges at about 50 railway stations, but tenders have been awarded for station that see the highest passenger footfalls and passenger earning presently,” he said.
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