Plush upholstery, designer toilets, diffused lighting, better ergonomics, LCD screens, personalised pantry — welcome to the world of ‘Anubhuti’, an ambitious initiative by the railways to target the fast-growing affluent class by offering comforts and amenities never experienced before on Indian tracks.

Anubhuti, which in English means an experience, promises to deliver more than what the Railways currently offers even on executive and first-class coaches that are attached to trains like Shatabdi and Rajdhani.

The name, Anubhuti, was chosen over words like ‘Super Deluxe’ and other such terms to convey a “personal Indianised touch” to the experience.

The railways plan to attach an Anubhuti coach on select routes of the Shatabdi and the Rajdhani. Railways will look at Shatabdi routes like Delhi-Chandigarh, Delhi-Lucknow, Delhi-Amritsar and Delhi-Jaipur.

Anubhuti coaches are designed to offer more leg space to passengers. Hence, these coaches will have a maximum seating capacity of 56 passengers.

While fares for Anubhuti coaches are yet to be worked out, officials indicated that they may be higher by 20-25% to the current fares charged for executive and first-class travel.

A coach of the Anubhuti will cost the Railways an additional Rs 30-35 lakh more for adding luxury fitments. A normal coach without the plush features currently costs around Rs 2.5 crore.