On 26th August, 2021, Anshul Gupta, General Manager, Northeast Frontier Railway briefed media on the unique features of Vistadome coaches that are being introduced over NFR.
It may be mentioned here that Northeast Frontier Railway is going to introduce Vistadome Tourist special trains in two identified popular routes having tourism potential. One is between Guwahati – New Haflong and other is between New Jalpaiguri – Alipurduar Junction w.e.f. 28-08-2021(Saturday).
During the interaction, the General Manager said that introduction of Vistadome Tourist trains are meant experience the scenic beauty and to display the cultural heritage of the region during unique train journey. The General Manager wished that joint effort with Tourism department will help toboost the tourism sector and local economy. This train would provide comfort and ease of travel experience throughout the journey.
The General Manager also illustrated the unique features of Vistadome coaches to media. The Vistadome coach areequipped with 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. It will also have observation lounges for the purpose of site seeing. The rotational seats of the coach are designed to provide added comfort to passengers. Coaches are also provided with digital entertainment system and Wi-Fi facilities. Tourist can enjoy the entire travel by enjoying infotainments like movies, music videos etc. Wi-Fi based passenger information system is also provided. For safety of passenger, CCTV cameras and Fire Alarm System are alsoinstalled.
The special Vistadome train service between Guwahati – New Haflong section will initially run two days a week – on every Wednesday and Saturday with stoppages at Manderdisa and Maibong stations. The train will depart from Guwahati at 6-35 hours and reach New Haflong at 11-55 hours covering a distance of 269 kms through the North Cachar Hill region. During return journey, the train will leave New Haflong at 17-00 hours to reach Guwahati at 22-45 hours.
The other Vistadome special train service between New Jalpaiguri – Alipurduar Jn section will initially run three days a week – on every Friday, Saturday and Sunday. The train will depart from New Jalpaiguri at 7-20 hours and reach Alipurduar Jn at 13.00 hours covering a distance of 169 kms through the Dooars Hill region of North Bengal. During return journey, the train will leave Alipurduar Jn at 14-00 hours to reach New Jalpaiguri at 19-00 hours. The train will have stoppages at Siliguri Jn, Sivok, New Mal Jn, Chalsa, Madarihat, Hasimara and Raja Bhat Khawa stations.
Introduction of this Vistadome trains will help to generate additional revenue for railway and also for local people of these areas. Northeast Frontier Railway hopes that the initiative to boost the tourism sector of Assam and North Bengal will be very well patronised by the local people as well as by the visitors from other states.
