Waiting for your train at the New Delhi Railway Station is set to become a pleasant experience. For there is now an “executive” waiting lounge – on the lines of what we see at airports.
For Rs 300 a person, you can enter the facility for three hours and do many things, such as enjoy complementary buffet meals or snacks, tea, coffee and soft beverages, accessing wi-fi , or even take a short nap on recliners.
The facility has been made available by Indian Railway Catering and Tourism Corporation (IRCTC), a Railways subsidiary. Catering services are provided by SSP Catering India, which also provides catering to Emirates’ lounge at T3, IGI Airport, New Delhi.
The lounge has TV screens with train information display, apart from other screens that display other channels. If passengers want to stay beyond three hours, Rs 125 will be charged for an hour.
Spread over 300 sq m and two floors, the lounge has a seating capacity for 125 persons. There are services such as business centre, fax, desktop, printer; wash and change, which are chargeable. The facility also houses a retail convenience store of WH Smith, with a bookshop.
IRCTC will pay 25 per cent of the revenue earned from this facility to Indian Railways.
Since November 26, when the facility became available, though not marketed, an average of 60-odd people used the facility every day, with some 114 people using it on one day.
IRCTC plans such facilities in 50 stations, including Delhi, Anand Vihar Terminal, Nizamuddin in National Capital Region, Howrah, Bhubaneswar, Agra, Ahmedabad, Bangalore, Puri, Amritsar, Hyderabad.