Recently, a decision was taken by the authorities that the luxury train Royal Rajasthan on Wheels (RROW) was to take over the Palace on Wheels (POW). There is now a new update. The old rake of POW is not going to be dismantled but will be chugging on a new journey route, however on a smaller one.

POW has been renamed as the Heritage Palace on Wheels (HPOW). Now, in the last 3 years of its life cycle, this Indian luxury train will now be traversing to the lesser-known Shekhawati region, which has splendid frescoed havelis (mansions). To date, no luxury train has traveled to this land. The plan is also to recover the collapsing heritage of this unexplored region.

Currently in the pipeline, this proposal suggests two itineraries for the Palace on Wheels train, which will not be in any use from this October, after the ROW will now run on the POW itinerary routes. The fresh itinerary of the HPOW will cover a spiral route to the Shekhawati region, including Bikaner, Keoladeo National Park, and Talchapar. It is being said that it is going to be pretty economical in comparison to the original POW, but yes, with the same royal comforts.

There is a proposal that from the upcoming tourist season, the new HPOW must travel for a three as well as four-day itinerary. One 4-day journey will cover a distance of 1536 km and will be named ‘Shekhawati Desert & Wildlife Tour’.  This journey will start from Delhi, every Sunday. The other itinerary will be called ‘The Golden Triangle with Bird Sanctuary’, covering a distance of 744 km. The train will depart from Delhi, every Thursday.

Pradeep Bohra, General Manager, RROW and POW said, “On account of corrosion-related problems and coral life basis, the rake needs to be replaced on the completion of 25 years. Operating since 1982, the third version of the POW that was launched in 1995 and has three more years of life left. The 3/4 day itinerary is being crafted to effectively put to use the POW rake on shorter routes and far economical tariff.”

The tariff that has been proposed for the new journeys will be 200 and 225 USD per day/person, instead of 650 USD per day/person which needed to be shelled out for the original journey. The rates have been kept affordable to attract more amount of tourists. Bohra added, “As for haulage, the Railways would decide on the Rajasthan Tourism Development Corporation RTDC and Railways revenue sharing model as these itineraries cover far shorter distance than what it used to on the itinerary before (i.e. 3000 km).”