Shrivastava says that journey on narrow-gauge isn’t very comfortable, “hence it is necessary to stud the train with all possible luxury items so it becomes a real pleasure ride.”

Incidentally, SECR has the largest narrow gauge network in the world, about 700 km.

The idea is to take the train up to Nagbhid (a three-hour journey) in the morning, from where the MTDC will take the tourists to Tadoba by road aboard their coach. The train will halt at Nagbhid for the tourists to come back the next evening and will return to Nagpur in the night.

Another itinerary being considered is that, for two days of the week, the train will move to Seoni, 150 km from here, from where it will run up to Nainpur (a three-hour journey). From Nainpur, tourists would be taken to Kanha National Park in the next 30-odd minutes. “Four days it will run to Tadoba and two to Kanha. That’s another option before us. For the Kanha segment, the MTDC and Madhya Pradesh TDC are planning a collaboration,” Shrivastava said.

“I am sending my team to Nagpur by mid-May to finalise things so that we have the first run soon,” MTDC chief Bhushan Gagrani said. “Actually, though it’s a jungle safari train, the kind of tourists we are looking forward to don’t prefer this time to venture out. So, we might see the real rush in winter when international tourists come in,” he added.

Meanwhile, the Indian Railway Catering and Tourism Corporation (IRCTC) and MTDC have finalised the profit-sharing formula in 55-45 ratio, in that order, to get over the last bottleneck in the way of the train’s maiden run.