COMFORT ON CARDS: Dhanbad station that will boast an executive lounge

Escape the cacophony of a busy junction station, relax and help yourself to refreshments or wrap up some last-minute business. Sounds like a cherished dream? So it is. The only distinction — this dream for one will soon come true in Dhanbad.

Passengers holding AC class tickets will no longer have to spend harrowing hours in grimy second-class waiting halls at the station, thanks to East Central Railway (ECR) that plans an executive lounge for them, complete with entertainment and communication facilities.

The Rs 1.5-crore lounge, which will be developed by Indian Railway Catering and Tourism Corporation Limited (IRCTC) on public-private partnership model, will sprawl over 1,000sqft and be the second of its ilk at any station under ECR after Patna.

The executive lounge project, for which tenders were invited last week, will be developed in the concourse near the enquiry counter. The relax station will boast a 10-bed dormitory, separate wash and change facilities for men and women, a television set, a music station, a conference room, Internet connectivity and a biscuit and beverage kiosk.

Senior commercial manager of Dhanbad division Dayanand said if everything went according to plan, the lounge would be ready to host passengers by this year-end. “Initially, we will just make seating arrangements, but gradually designate a dormitory where exhausted passengers can steal a few winks before they resume their journey,” he said.

Highlighting more about the facilities at the proposed executive lounge, regional manager of IRCTC Anand Kumar Jha said they would also identify a “meet-and-greet zone” keeping in mind the fact that a bulk of AC travellers are businessmen.

“The decision to launch the lounge is aimed at providing better facilities to executive-class travellers. A passenger can convene a meeting with clients at our conference facility or just use it for an informal gathering with friends and family members. This will be known as our meet-and-greet zone, which will boast Internet on demand. Similarly, two toilets with showers each for men and women will help passengers beat travel fatigue. We will call this our wash-and-change facility,” Jha said.

Live television and a music station will fill in the entertainment gap along with biscuits, tea, coffee and soft drinks. “We don’t plan to introduce other snacks apart from biscuits in order to keep the lounge litter-free,” he explained.

And does this dream lounge have a price? “Certainly. But, it is still tentative. We are yet to decide on the exact charges,” Jha said, adding that the pocket pinch might range between Rs 20 and Rs 50 an hour.

Welcoming the development, president of Federation of Dhanbad Zilla Chamber of Commerce and Industry Rajiv Sharma — he is also a member of the Zonal Railway User Consultative Committee — said railway travel would climb a luxe step with the executive lounge at the coal town station.