The Vistadome Tourist special trains. (Photo Courtesy: @RailNf)
Trains to operate on Guwahati - New Haflong and New Jalpaiguri – Alipurduar January routes
Maligaon, August 26 (MExN): The Northeast Frontier Railway (NFR) will be introducing Vistadome Tourist special trains on “two identified popular routes having tourism potential” from August 26, an official release informed.
The first route is Guwahati-New Haflong and other is between New Jalpaiguri – Alipurduar Junction, stated the release from Guneet Kaur, NFR’s Chief Public Relations Officer
In this connection, NFR General Manager Anshul Gupta interacted with media persons at Guwahati Railway Station and briefed them about the unique features of Vistadome coaches, it said. Senior Railway officials and official from Assam Tourism department were present during the interaction.
The introduction of tourist trains is aimed at allowing the passenger to experience the scenic beauty and to display the cultural heritage of the region during unique journey, Gupta maintained during the interaction.
The joint effort with tourism department will help to boost the tourism sector and local economy. This train would provide comfort and ease of travel experience throughout the journey, he said.
Highlighting the unique features of Vistadome coaches, Gupta said that it included state of the art glass windows and all glass roofs, providing 360 degree view of the open sky, mountains, tunnels, bridges, hills and lush green forests to the tourists.
The coaches will also have observation lounges for the purpose of site seeing and their rotational seats are designed to provide added comfort to passengers, he said.
Coaches are also provided with digital entertainment system and Wi-Fi facilities and tourist can enjoy the entire travel by enjoying infotainment like movies, music videos etc, he added.
As per the release, the Vistadome train service will initially run two days a week between Guwahati - New Haflong section on every Wednesday and Saturday with stoppages at Manderdisa and Maibong stations.
The train will depart from Guwahati at 6:35 AM and reach New Haflong at 11:55 AM hours covering a distance of 269 kms through the North Cachar Hill region. During return journey, the train will leave New Haflong at 5 PM and reach Guwahati at 10:45AM
The other Vistadome train initially will run between New Jalpaiguri – Alipurduar Jn section thrice - Friday, Saturday and Sunday.
The train will depart from New Jalpaiguri at 7:20 AM and reach Alipurduar Jn at 1PM covering a distance of 169 kms through the Dooars Hill region of North Bengal.
During return journey, the train will leave Alipurduar Jn at 2PM to reach New Jalpaiguri at 7PM. The train will have stoppages at Siliguri Jn, Sivok, New Mal Jn, Chalsa, Madarihat, Hasimara and Raja Bhat Khawa stations.
NFR General Manager Anshul Gupta, General Manager interacts with media persons at Guwahati Railway Station regarding the introduction Vistadome Tourist special trains on August 26. (Photo Courtesy: @RailNf)
