The Northeast Frontier Railway (NFR) on Saturday flagged off the long-awaited vistadome tourist special trains in Assam and West Bengal to boost tourism and cultural heritage of the Northeast vistadome tourist special train services.
In a series of tweets, the NFR said that Assam’s first special tourist vistadome train between Guwahati-New Haflong section was flagged off by Assam Tourism Minister Bimal Bora in the presence of MP Queen Oja, NCHAC CEM Debolal Gorlosa, NFR GM Anshul Gupta and other senior Railway and state government officials.
"This initiative by NFR to boost the tourism sector of Assam is expected to be very well patronized," the NFR said in a tweet.
(PHOTO: Twitter)
In West Bengal, Union Minister of State, Minority Affairs John Barla flagged off the vistadome tourist special train service between New Jalpaiguri and Alipurduar Junction.
"At the flagging off ceremony of the Vistadome, MP and MLAs of the area apart from senior railway officials were present. Now tourists will be able to enjoy the natural beauty of the Dooars area in the foothills of the Himalayas during the journey by this train," the NFR tweeted.
The special tourist vistadome train between Guwahati-New Haflong section with a vistadome coach, two air-conditioned chair cars and two non-a/c chair cars, will run twice a week, on Wednesday and Saturday.
The train, which will cover a distance of 269 kms through the North Cachar Hill region, will depart at 6.35 am from Guwahati and will reach New Haflong at 11:55 am. It will stop at Manderdisa and Maibong stations.
During the return journey, it will leave New Haflong at 5 pm and reach Guwahati at 10:45 pm.
The tourist train between New Jalpaiguri (NJP) and Alipurduar Junction through the Dooars in north Bengal with a 44-seat capacity will run three days a week i.e., Friday, Saturday and Sunday. It will depart from New Jalpaigur at 7.20 am and will reach Alipurduar Junction at 1 pm covering a distance of 169 km.
During the return journey, the train will leave Alipurduar Junction at 2 pm to reach New Jalpaiguri at 7 pm.