Two rail coaches being converted into restaurants in Jammu, Katra

Jammu, October 8

The Railways is converting two abandoned coaches into theme-based restaurants at Katra and Jammu railway stations here. The initiative has been named Beautiful Restaurants on Wheels, under which old train coaches are being refurbished and transformed into rail coach restaurants.

“Two rail-coach restaurants are being worked upon in Jammu and Katra. This is a scheme of the Railways under which old coaches are converted into rail-coach restaurants. Tenders have been granted to two different parties,” Divisional Transportation Manager, Jammu, Prateek Srivastava said. He said the two AC restaurants combined would bring in an annual revenue of Rs 50 lakh and each of them will be set up over 1,600 square feet. “Under this plan, we are offering these coaches to private parties to create state-of-the-art restaurants according to their own designs,” he said.

The first coach restaurant is expected to open its doors by December, with the coaches already in place. The two restaurants will have been named ‘Annapurna’ and ‘Maa Durga’.

“It will take 90 days to convert a coach into a fully functional restaurant. It will be equipped with all the necessary facilities,” Pradeep Gupta, the owner of Annapurna Restaurant, said.

Restaurants on a similar line have already been successfully launched at nine to 10 major railway stations across India. “The initiative is being experimented nationwide. To my knowledge, it is already operational at several railway stations, the DTM said.