If there ever was a time to get tourism professionals to steer Maharashtra’s Palace-on-Wheels, it’s now.Staffed by 50—including beauticians, health instructors, attendants and a chef—the palatial, 21-coach Deccan Odyssey rolled into Pune railway station last evening with just three guests on board. Confirming the number of tourists for the $ 485-per-day seven nights, eight days package, Maharashtra Tourism Development Corporation (MTDC) tour manager Arun Gokhale said: ‘‘A couple from the Netherlands and a US citizen are travelling. They boarded the train at Mumbai last Wednesday.’’ The MTDC looks after ticket-bookings, the railways takes care of power and water supply and the Taj Group handles housekeeping and catering for the train that can accommodate 96 people with two restaurants, a conference hall, two health clubs, four deluxe suites and residential rooms. Launched last year, the Deccan Odyssey has run the Mumbai-Ratnagiri-Sindhudurg-Goa-Kolhapur, Pune-Aurangabad- Jalgaon and Nashik-Mumbai legs seven times. Officials say the train has never run full—at best ‘‘60 per cent’’ since it began its post-monsoon run this October. While there are hardly any Indian takers, foreigners are often ‘‘just a handful.’’ The Dutch couple, Hanna and husband Willem, said, ‘‘The trip so far left many beautiful impressions especially the temples at Ganapatipule and Kolhapur. We are being treated like royalty and that has almost spoilt us.’’ As for Robert Bruce Foster, he wants ‘‘to take the chef home.’’
