Fine Dining Experience on Train: How Railways is Planning to Transform These Old Coaches in UP

People visiting prime railway stations of Uttar Pradesh can now get a fine dining experience, besides enjoying world-class amenities, as the Indian Railways (IR) plans to lease out its scrapped and discarded train coaches to the restaurateurs and hoteliers, giving them the liberty to transform them.

Officials with the North Eastern Railways (NER), a zone of IR, said the entire transformation exercise is part of a non-fare revenue opportunity under which IR is giving its condemned coaches on lease to private players for a period of 3-5 years.

IR officials said these coaches will be placed outside the station premises, and the makeover will reflect the local culture and art forms of those areas, and a need to promote them.

“It’s a unique move, I believe, and having a fine dining experience in a Railway coach indeed would give an all new experience to the people. There is a good majority of people who are open to such unique and uncommon experiences,” said Riyaz Rashid Khan, one of the lessees of three such upcoming coach restaurants in Gomti Nagar, Gorakhpur, and Sidhauli (Sitapur).

Khan said the transformation work is in full swing. One coach would be stationed at Gomti Nagar Railway Station in Lucknow’s Gomti Nagar, one coach would be at Gorakhpur and two other coaches would remain stationed at Sidhhauli in Sitapur. “One that would remain stationed at Gomti Nagar would serve best of the Awadhi cuisine including Nihari Kulcha, Awadhi Biryani, Pasanda, Shahi Tukda, Gilawati Kababs and other Mughlai cuisines in order to satiate the taste buds of the food connoisseurs,” Khan said while sharing his plans for his upcoming venture.

Other than the coach-cum-restaurant in Gomti Nagar that would be designed in Nawabi era architecture, the people visiting the one in Gorakhpur would have a glimpse of Gorakhnath temple and the two in Sidhauli would have representation of Naimisharanya. “Gorakhpur will serve only vegetarian food and one among two coaches will serve veg and non-veg food in Sidhauli,” he added.

Similar to these, two such coach restaurants are already running in NER’s Izzatnagar station in Bareilly and one in Varanasi district, whereas several stations of the state such as Lucknow’s Charbagh Station, Lucknow’s Gomti Nagar Station, Sitapur’s Sidhauli (Sitapur), Gorakhpur’s Gorakhpur junction, Varanasi’s Varanasi City Station, Varanasi’s Varanasi Junction, Agra’s Agra Cantt Station, and in Jhansi will come up in one-two months.

Open Air Rail Museum in Agra Cantt

Similarly, Agra Cantt station of North Central Railway (NCR) has gone a little ahead of others and has big plans not only to set up a coach-cum-restaurant but also constructing an open-air railway museum in a 20,000 sq. feet area. “We have given the coach-cum-restaurant to Hilton on lease for five years that would serve sumptuous food to people. Whereas the museum in the open air (rail heritage park) will showcase vintage equipment which is obsolete now such as old signals, old tickets, and old Level Crossing gates among others will be displayed. We are collecting such vintage items from all across UP,” said Prashasti Srivastava, Divisional Commercial Manager of Agra railway division.

She further said the project will help railways earn Rs 85 lakh in five years.

Unlike other coach-cum-restaurants that would come up in different parts of Uttar Pradesh, the coach restaurant in Agra would not only serve Petha — the local sweet but also serve forgotten transitional cuisines. Of the two coaches that would remain stationed in Agra, one coach that can occupy 35 people at a time, would serve veg food while other would serve non-vegetarian cuisines. In order to promote local food, Rail heritage park-cum-Food on Wheels at Agra Cantt has associated with 150-year-old Pracheen Petha which will serve various forms of hygienic and herbal petha. Similarly, Agra’s famous chat will also be served, informed Deepak Sharma, the lessee of the project.

“We plan to introduce Agra’s Kareem Kebab which was served to Queen Victoria but has been forgotten over time,” he added.

Sharing further plans, he said a common information centre for tourism and railway will be set up for passengers.