Luxury train project gets single bid — from Oberoi

The proposed luxury train to promote tourism in Punjab may finally get on rails. Of the four companies that had been shortlisted for the financial and technical bids for the ‘Super Luxury Tourist Train’,covering Punjab and its neighbouring states,only the Oberoi Group has come up with its bid. The deadline for submitting the bid was December 7.

The Punjab Heritage and Tourism Promotion Board had issued a global advertisement in January,inviting expressions of interest for the selection of management partner for the project. The four firms shortlisted to submit the bids were Cox and Kings,the Oberoi group,Le Passage (in consortium with the London-based GW Travels) and Maple Hotels.

The route for the train is yet to be finalised. The government had earlier decided that the train should touch major tourist attractions of the state,such as Amritsar,Anandpur Sahib and Patiala. The management partner could decide to include more cities of Punjab on the route and take the train to Haryana or Rajasthan.

Punjab is contributing Rs 13 crore to the Rs 32-crore project. The Centre is pooling in with Rs 7.5 crore,while the Railways will construct the coaches for the train. The financial bid for the luxury train is also supposed to include a proposal for the sharing of revenue with the Punjab Heritage and Tourism Promotion Board.