World-class luxury on wheels now in Pune

Uma Karve Chakranarayan writes in ExpressIndia.com :
Pune, September 28: South Africa has the famous Blue Train
and Europe has the Orient Express. So far India has boasted
of the famous Palace on Wheels. But that could change, when,
for the second year, the Deccan Odyssey sets to thunder
through Maharashtra and Goa.

The 96-seater train has all it takes to make it happen. A spa,
two fine dining restaurants, masseurs, a beauty parlour,
a conference room are among the many facilities that suggest
enormous comfort. Besides, to enrich the truly Indian experience,
travellers will be served ethnic cuisine — Maharashtrian, Malwani,
Konkani, Goan — depending on the place they are passing through.
However, Continental and Italian cuisine, too, is on offer on board.

Tickets for the luxury train are steep — just below 500 dollars a night
for foreigners and Rs 15,000 for Indians. Bhushan Gagrani, MD,
MTDC, explains, “Most of our passengers are from Spain, Germany,
Italy and France. So far, for this season that begins on October 5, we
have not had a single Indian booking.” But since the target is foreign
travellers, that doesn’t seem to matter as much.
Read more about the Deccan Odyssey here.