New Delhi: The Indian Railway Catering and Tourism Corporation (IRCTC) received an instruction from Railway Minister Piyush Goyal to allow the availability of Railway Reserved Accommodation (saloon coach) available for commercial purposes.

“Saloons are the trappings of a colonial mindset with no place in modern India,” said Mr Goyal.

In earlier times, saloon coaches were dedicated for railway officials with full reservation. A saloon coach usually has two bedrooms, a lounge, toilet, pantry, and a kitchen.

“It has always been his (Goyal) thinking that the Railways should provide the best possible services to the common man for which he always tries to get the feedback from the public for improvement of services of Indian Railways,” the Indian Railways said.

The Railway Minister took a decision that by making these saloons available for the ordinary passengers, it may return commercial profits for the railways. After the order, at least two such saloon coaches, which were reserved for the Railway Minister exclusively, may be put at the disposal of the IRCTC for common passengers to use after certain payment.

All such saloon coaches in the Indian railways will be made available for commercial purposes with the condition of payment. But those saloons, that are meant for safety or operational needs will be kept reserved for the purpose they have been dedicated to. Usually, the saloons or inspection cars can have a space for two families and built in a way to cater a stay of up to five days.

As per the reports, the Indian Railways has got a total of 336 such saloon cars distributed across railway zones, out of these 62 are air-conditioned.

The move by the railway minister is to bring more profits to the Indian railways by utilizing those assets, that were till now left out of the commercial assets. But the move also avails the ordinary passenger with the option to get the whole space in saloon coach to travel with his family with the feel at home factor. As the whole coach will be reserved for the family and no outsider or other unknown passenger allowed to enter it, the coach will feel like a home far away from home.

Whoever are interested to plan a travel to tourism places or a long journey visit to their relatives living far away, can get a saloon coach reserved for their family to enjoy the journey with all their belongings safe without any worry.

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