Residents of Rourkela city in western Odisha will soon have the opportunity to dine in a restaurant on a railway coach, an official said. The restaurant, which is the initiative of a Kolkata-based company, will open its doors to the public before this Durga Puja, Rourkela railway station manager Prabhat Das said. The restaurant will be operational near the second gate on the northern side of the busy railway station, he said. The second gate was chosen as the first gate or the main entrance and platform 1 has several restaurants and eateries, the official said.
Satya Das, a regular commuter, said he was happy that the station was going to have such a unique restaurant. “This will immensely benefit people like me who frequently travel by trains. I hope it will serve good food at an affordable rate,” he said. During his recent visit to Rourkela, South Eastern Railways General Manager Anil Kumar Mishra said that Rourkela railway station will undergo complete transformation under a project worth Rs 400 crore. The project proposal will be sent to the railway board for approval, he had said, adding that two newly constructed platforms will be formally open to the public before Durga Puja.
Puri-Rourkela Vande Bharat Express
Soon a new Vande Bharat Express will run between Puri and Rourkela. A trial run of the train was successfully conducted, and it will be the second semi-high-speed train in the state. The Puri-Rourkela Vande Bharat Express will operate six days a week, except for Saturday. The semi-high-speed train will take halts at Bhubaneshwar, Cuttack, Khurda Road, Dhenkanal, Kerejanga, Angul, Jharsuguda, and Sambalpur City. It will cover a total distance of 505 kilometres in 7 hours and 30 minutes. As for the timing, the train will depart from Puri at 5 AM to reach Rourkela by 12:45 PM. From Rourkela, it will start at around 2:10 PM to reach Puri by 9:40 PM.
