The Royal Rajasthan is a golden-black beauty with 21 coaches—14 passenger saloons, two restaurant-cum-bars, a kitchen, a staff car, a store-cum-staff car and two power cars. Thirteen of the 14 passenger saloons have been named after various forts in Rajasthan—Ummed Palace, Surya Mahal, Sukh Mahal, Phool Mahal, Padmini Mahal, Hawa Mahal, Jal Mahal, Jogi Mahal, Kishori Mahal, Kumbha Mahal, Lalgarh Mahal and Moti Mahal. These 13 saloons have three deluxe cabins each: Ruby, Sapphire and Pearl. Each of these cabins can accommodate two people and is equipped with a study table, a cupboard and bed-lamps. The sole super-deluxe saloon—named ‘Taj Mahal’—has two cabins, the ‘Emerald’ and the ‘Diamond’. The Royal Rajasthan is all set to become the first Wi-Fi enabled train in the country. In another two-three months, it will also offer a spa-cum-beauty parlour-cum-ayurvedic massage centre.

The train can seat 82 persons, unlike the Palace on Wheels, which can take in 104. “While the Palace on Wheels has four cabins per coach, the Royal Rajasthan has only three, thus making the cabins bigger,” says RTDC’s General Manager B.K. Sharma. Also, unlike the Palace on Wheels which accommodated three persons in each cabin, the Royal Rajasthan will only allow twin-sharing.

The Railways spent around Rs 12.5 crore on the train’s shell and accessories, the RTDC put in Rs 27.5 crore for the interior decoration and the air-conditioning.

The first-ever Palace On Wheels, an amalgamation of 12 fully-furnished, non air-conditioned wooden saloons once owned by former maharajahs and viceroys of British Raj, chugged off on January 26, 1982. Nine years later, in 1991, the Palace on Wheels was re-launched with a new air-conditioned meter-gauge rake. But with the meter-gauge tracks, none of the coaches could accommodate attached baths. The present Palace on Wheels was launched in 1995 after Rajasthan got broad gauge tracks.

The tariff

A ride in the super deluxe Taj Mahal cabin will cost $2000 (Rs 96,120) per night. The tariffs for the deluxe cabins will be $800 (Rs 38,448) per person per night on twin-sharing basis and $1,200 (Rs 57,672) per person per night for single occupancy. An introductory discount of $101 (Rs 4,854) per person per night is being offered in deluxe cabins.

Children below 5 years will be accommodated free along with adult passengers while those in the age-group of 5-12 years will be charged 50 per cent of the fee. The tariff includes all incidental expenses like cost of travel, accommodation on board, multi-cuisine meals and local transport for sight seeing.