Lalu Prasad Yadav calls them Garib Raths. Come September, the Railways will roll out the first fully AC Garib Rath between Delhi and Patna on a trial basis. The ticket: less than Rs 500.

And if this weekly experiment works, the Raths will hit three more routes: Delhi-Mumbai (weekly); Delhi-Chennai (weekly); and Saharsa-Amritsar (bi-weekly), via Barauni, Hajipur, Sonpur, Chhapra, Gorakhpur.

The venture is set to take the Railways battle against lost-cost airlines a step further.

"Our strategy is to play on the dreams and aspirations of the people. A passenger travelling sleeper class aspires to travel AC class, not by air. If we offer AC travel for just a little more than what the passenger is paying for sleeper, he would be more than happy to travel with us," said Sudhir Kumar, Officer on Special Duty to Lalu.

On the fare logistics, he said: "For Delhi-Mumbai route, we currently charge Rs 450 for sleeper and Rs 1,400 for AC, while the cheapest airline takes around Rs 1,900. The Garib Rath would offer AC chair car products between Rs 550-650 and AC sleeper for Rs 750 for the same route."

The Railways have a formula to to make the venture commercially viable: Enhanced seating capacity per coach and longer trains, earning a 20 per cent profit. “All Garib Raths would have a minimum 24 coaches and more seating capacity, as a result of which the unit cost per coach kilometre for Garib Rath’s AC coaches would come to around Rs 32, which would be at par with the non-AC sleeper trains," said Kumar.

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