Rail museum to promote night tourism

New Delhi: The National Rail Museum has decided to keep its doors open till 9 pm from next month in a bid to increase footfalls at the country’s premier custodian of railway heritage, senior officials of the museum said on Thursday.

The move is in line with the views of tourism minister K.J. Alphons, who has been advocating that places of tourist interest should remain open post evening.

“We are still working out the details. We have to give the tourists who visit at night a different package than what we give to the day tourists. We are working that out. But the museum will be open from 6 pm to 9 pm,” said Amit Saurastri, director of National Rail Museum (NRM).

Currently, the museum is open throughout the year except on Mondays. The timings for visiting the museum currently are 10 am to 5 pm. The new timings of 10 am to 5 pm and 6 pm to 9 pm will come into effect from May 1. Officials said that the idea was to make a tourist spend at least half-a-day at the rail museum by giving them a night package which could include a light and sound show.

The tourists could enjoy simulators, toy trains and 3D virtual coach rides with discounts, ranging from 30-40 per cent on offer, they said. 

On weekdays, the museum gets a footfall of around 1,000-1,500 visitors while on weekends, the number goes up to 2,000. The museum is also planning to strike a deal with Madam Tussauds wax museum under which one ticket would enable a tourist to visit both the museums.   

“We could even include other museums in Delhi in the package as well whereby one ticket will be enough to visit all the museums with day-long multiple entries. This needs to be worked out,” said Chairman Railway Board Ashwani Lohani, who has been at the forefront of promoting rail tourism in the country.