Bengaluru: Rail-coach restaurant to be set up at 2 railway stations by October this year

Two railway stations in Bengaluru will soon get a theme based air-conditioned rail-coach restaurant with state-of-the-art facilities which will be set up by the South Western Railway here. Passengers visiting the KSR Bengaluru City Railway Station and the newly inaugurated Sir M Visvesvarya Terminal Bengaluru Station (SMVB) will be able to avail this new facility likely by October at these stations, officials said on Wednesday.

As of now only two such restaurants have been planned. However, post the re-development of Yesvantpur and Bengaluru Cantonment, possibility of establishing similar restaurants there will be explored, they said. According to railway officials, the landscapes of the two specified railway stations of Bengaluru division is set to undergo a major upgrade with two novel rail-coach restaurant to be set-up here.

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These restaurants are expected to be operational by October end this year. The contract has been awarded and the engineering department of railways will soon carry out the track laying work. The main idea behind such restaurants is to give passengers a new and different dining experience.

Dining options at railway stations are limited and away from the routine dining experience, these kinds of restaurants will give passengers an option to experience in-coach dining with freshly cooked food since most stations only have pre-cooked food, Kusuma Hariprasad, Additional Divisional Railway Manager, South Western Railway (Bengaluru Division) told PTI.

These restaurants will aim to provide a wide range of food and bridge the gap between the food that's available outside the railway station and that which is available within the station premises, she said.

"These rail coach restaurants are a new non-fare revenue initiative by the Railways wherein old and to-be scrapped Railway coaches are modified and refurbished to convert them into restaurants with adequate seating facilities to give passengers a new dining experience," she said.

These airconditioned rail coach restaurants with state-of-the art facilities will cater to the public 24x7. Both vegetarian and non-vegetarian food would be served here, she said. The rail coach restaurants which will be set up near the entrance of both these railway stations will serve both north and south Indian delicacies with a seating capacity of 50 inside the coach and few more outside the coach.

Breakfast, lunch, snacks and dinner facility will be available at these restaurants. Contracts for these rail-coach restaurants were awarded under the e-auction module of the Railway Board in June this year and witnessed fierce competition amongst bidders, officials said.

"The contract for rail coach restaurant at KSR Bengaluru City Railway Station was awarded to Oam Industries Pvt Ltd while the contract at Sir M Visvesvarya Terminal Bengaluru Station (SMVB) was awarded to Gaurav Enterprises. The contract is for five years and will fetch the railways a total revenue of Rs 7.54 Crore in licence fees," the senior official said.

"The designing of restaurants will be done by private players who have been awarded the contract through an open e-auction. Only the coach and land will be provided by the Railways for the contract period. Development of the coach and operating the restaurant will be done by the Licensees," she said.

The engineering department of the Railways will soon start track laying work at the locations, after which the licensees will shift the coaches, which are available and ready to be moved, to the tracks at the location, the officials said.

They will then take 60 days to modify and furnish the coaches, they said. The names will be decided by the licensee after designing. The South Western Railway has already set up a rail coach restaurant named Boogie- Boogie at Sri Siddharoodha Swami Railway Station in Hubballi, officials said.