Nine luxury saloons or inspection carriages used by senior railway officials for official purposes will now be handed over to the Indian Railway Catering and Tourism Corporation (IRCTC) for operating premium tourist trains.
The move follows a recent order of the Railway Board strictly regulating the use of the customised air-conditioned carriages for official purposes and restricting the facility to Zonal General Managers and Divisional Railway Managers. Two inspection carriages would be made available for the use of Principal Heads of Departments who were earlier using one each, railway sources said on Sunday.
"Colonial mindset"
The decision to withdraw the inspection carriages followed a remark made by Union Railway Minister Piyush Goyal who said that the saloons were "trappings of a colonial mindset" and gave up his coach. This statement of the Minister came amid allegations that the inspection carriages were being misused by some officials, the sources said.
Last month the Railway Board issued an order to all zones directing that the use of inspection carriages should be for the "purpose of inspection with focus on safety". Saloons over and above the specified requirement should be moved to suitable locations for premium tourist traffic for earning additional revenue for the railways.
After assessing the availability and requirement across Indian Railways, the Railway Board said that 180 inspection carriages should be handed over to IRCTC for operation of premium tourist trains. The Railway Board and Northern Railway headquartered at New Delhi would move the maximum of 38 coaches, while the Western Railway, Mumbai, North Frontier Railway, Guwahati, South Eastern Railway, Howrah, East Coast Railway, Bhubaneswar, South Central Railway, Secunderabad, were among the zones that would hand ten or more coaches.
Saloons Cost-effective
However, railway officers are concerned over the withdrawal of the facility since they said it was very useful to camp at remote wayside stations during inspections. "During construction, inspection and maintenance of major railway establishments like bridges, new stations, gauge doubling, electrification etc we have to camp at the site for a few days. Instead of travelling to the nearest railway station with retiring room facility, we stay in the saloons along with other staff. This saves a lot of time and money. It is wrong to say that saloons are being misused. Though family members can be taken in saloons as per rules, hardly any officer takes them while on duty," a railway official said.
Railway sources added that the inspection carriages taken from Southern Railway could be used to operate a premium tourist train originating from the zone to tourist/pilgrim destinations across the country.
