How Vistadome coaches can prove to be a gamechanger for Indian Railways

Indian Railways in the recent days after the slowing of second wave covid-19 has introduced ‘Vistadome’ coaches on two of its routes on Mumbai -Pune and Bengaluru-Mangaluru sections. The railways are planning to introduce these on other routes as well which includes the northeastern parts of the country as well.Experts concur with govt’s push for Vistadome coaches in popular tourist routes to help generate additional revenue for the Indian Railways.

The fares of Vistadome coachesare kept at par with the Executive Class which again may help the national transporter to generate additional revenue.

“India has the potential to attract the right share of travellers and to increase the tourism contribution to India’s overall GDP. Besides other factors in the post-pandemic era, railway infrastructure for eg. Vistadome will be a differentiator for attracting quality tourism from overseas and within India,” said Vishnu Sudarsan, Partner, J Sagar Associates.

Whilst Vistadome coaches have been rolled out on the Western Ghat stretch but given the vast rail connectivity, natural beauty and tourist hotspots in India, there is an immediate need to revisit and repackage tourism infrastructure with renewed financial vigour.

He further added that better infrastructure will help in attracting investments.

“Vistadome coaches have the potential to unlock the traffic potential on tourism routes and destinations which in pre COVID situation were slowly being put out of play by Indian Railway.