Work on restaurant-on-wheels underway at Amritsar railway station

Neeraj Bagga

Amritsar, June 21

A discarded train coach is being spruced up at the railway station to set up a restaurant-on-wheels to serve delectable Punjabi cuisine.

Keeping in view the pace of work, the railway station is soon poised to have a train-themed restaurant to attract tourists visiting the city of Golden Temple. The contract for setting up the restaurant was awarded in April, 2023 to a New Delhi-based company for five years at an annual licence fee of Rs 28.30 lakh.

Months after allotment of the five-year contract, the authorities have already installed a model track (showpiece) and stationed a discarded coach, number 01056, on it in the railway station complex.

Railway officials said the delay was on the part of the private company which was awarded the contract. They are incurring losses as they are paying the annual licence fee to the Railways but the project is yet to get off the ground. However, the project is expected to become functional soon, they said. A visit to the model rail coach revealed that whitewashing and carpeting have been done but the chairs are yet to be installed. A concrete staircase has been added from outside for the entry of people.

At the Amritsar railway station, the model railway track was set up outside the general waiting hall. It is likely to give sleepless nights to dhabas and other eateries functional on the railway link road. Amidst the ambience of a train, the restaurant would offer tandoori food like kulchas, naan and other eatables. The city is famous for several delicacies, but the most sought after breakfast is kulchas with crisp exterior and soft and flaky interiors, wrapped around fillings of potato, onion, cauliflower, green chillies, smoky spices and more besides puris, Chhole-bhature. The restaurant would serve multiple foot items in the aesthetically decked up coach catering to both taste and convenience of passengers and tourists.