Northeast Frontier Railway (NFR) on Thursday said it will introduce Vistadome tourist special trains on two popular routes – Guwahati-New Haflong in Assam and New Jalpaiguri-Alipurduar Junction in West Bengal from Saturday.

The first train in northeast India fitted with special Vistadome coaches will leave Guwahati station on Saturday for New Haflong Railway Station and will travel through the scenic Dima Hasao district.

This is the third train in the nation, second within the Northeast Frontier Railway, to have the recently launched coaches that provide a 360 degree view of the open sky, mountains, hills and lush green forests to the tourists.

“Introduction of Vistadome trains is meant to help tourists experience the scenic beauty and to display the cultural heritage of the region during the unique journey. The joint effort with the tourism department will help to boost the tourism sector and as well as the local economy,” said Anshul Gupta, General Manager of NF Railway, in Guwahati.

The Vistadome coaches are equipped with state of the art glass windows and all glass roofs and provide a 360 degree view. It also has observation lounges for the purpose of site seeing. The rotational seats of the coach are designed to provide added comfort to passengers. Coaches are also provided with digital entertainment system and Wi-Fi facilities. For safety of passenger, CCTV cameras and fire alarm system are also installed.

Mr Gupta said the train ticket will cost ₹ 1,150.
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Initially, the train will travel twice a week – Wednesday and Saturday – from Guwahati at 6.35 in the morning and reach New Haflong at 11.55 am covering a distance of 269 km. It will have only two stoppages at Manderdisa and Maibong stations.

On return journey, the train will leave New Haflong at 5 pm and reach Guwahati at 10.45 pm.

In Bengal, the train will leave New Jalpaiguri at 7:20 am and will reach Alipurduar Jn at 1 pm covering a distance of 169 km through the Dooars Hill region. During return journey, the train will leave Alipurduar Jn at 2pm to reach New Jalpaiguri at 7pm.

It will have stoppages at Siliguri Jn, Sivok, New Mal Jn, Chalsa, Madarihat, Hasimara and Raja Bhat Khawa stations.