The Duronto Express at Sealdah station. Picture by Amit Datta

Calcutta, Sept. 18: For the first time in Indian Railways’ 150-year history, a train with many-coloured splashes rolled today.

The Sealdah-New Delhi Duronto Express, flagged off by railway minister Mamata Banerjee, has been painted in the primary colours that erupted out of its body, garlanded for the first run.

A railway official said: “The design was primarily conceived by the minister herself. Such colours have never been seen in the railways and she wanted this new train to be bright and colourful which would go along with its speed.”

Mamata has been known to paint — and write poetry — in her spare time. Duronto, which roughly means unbridled, can only be the product of a poetic mind, though it’s not known if it was conceived in a burst of creativity.

The official said all the other 13 Duronto trains that would be introduced shortly would have the same design. It cost Rs 2.5 lakh to paint the first, whose insides are decorated with traditional paintings.

“The coaches of the train have on them a work of art in primary colours denoting speed, in the middle of which is a pair of legs, coloured blue, in a running stance,” explained the official.

Mamata’s favourite green, a profusion of which is also seen in her party symbol, is the base colour on all the coaches. A close aide said: “Didi has an extraordinary sense of colour combination in all her paintings and it was the same for Duronto. Her favourite colour is green, which symbolises maa, mati, manush (mother, earth and man).”

The idea of a colourful Duronto was born around one-and-a-half months ago. “She told railway officials that the train should be non-stop, charge lower than Rajdhani and it must be very colourful,” the aide said.

During the flag-off, Mamata said: “The railways are evergreen. The Duronto Express concept is new and our thoughts are modern.”

An artist who spoke on condition of anonymity said: “Speed has been suggested through patches of colour. But to the layperson the paint-work could look like a child’s scrawls.”

That means they could be done better. But a child’s scrawls are adorable, all the same.

Eastern Railway had outsourced the painting of Duronto to an agency through a tender. “The agency prepared several designs which were sent to the Railway Board for approval. The board approved this design,” the official said.

Sources said the design was, in fact, approved by Mamata and the board then gave the green light.

The painting was digitally embossed on cast polymeric vinyl — a type of film that has good adhesive quality — by using the ultraviolet technique. It took eight days for the agency to stick the painted films on the outside of 18 coaches.

“Of the 18 coaches, 16 are being used for Duronto. We will paint 25 coaches, though 16 will be used for the train,” the railway official said.

“We have used traditional art, including Madhubani paintings, to adorn the walls inside the coaches,” he said.

As of now, only Duronto will be painted. “A decision about other trains is yet to be taken,” the official said.

Duronto, despite its name, had to stop on its inaugural run as the pantograph of the engine got entangled in a kite’s thread. Instead of its scheduled first operational stop at Dhanbad, it had to halt at Dankuni from 5.46pm to 6.17pm.

“This is a small incident and happens in all long-distance trains, including the Rajdhani Express,” Mamata said.

Just goes to show a train can be painted any colour but will still be a train.