In an era of e-books, there is good news for all book lovers who are travelling in long-distance trains. For the first time on Indian Railways, a moving library will be set up within Deccan Queen and Panchavati Express trains. The railways are terming this as 'books on wheels' that was launched on October 15 by state Education minister Vinod Tawde.
On Monday evening, the 'books on wheels' was inaugurated in these two trains — Deccan Queen goes to Pune and Panchavati goes to Manmad. In each of these trains, a trolley filled with 250-300 books will be ferried and passengers are free to pick a book of their choice.
Initially there shall be Marathi literature books varying from history, politics, mystery, biographies and even those books translated from other languages. "It will be beneficial for people who love to read. We shall be introducing more books in English and Hindi as well," said Vinod Tawde, state Education minister.
There shall be two people belonging to the Marathi language branch of Education department who shall be carrying these books inside coaches. There shall be one trolley filled with books while other person will carry a shoulder bag lugged with books inside it. The passenger interested in reading the book, needs to pick one against which the seat number and PNR will be noted down. Later at the end of journey, the books need to be returned.
Tawde appreciated the Central Railway for not going right till the Railway Board which otherwise would have led to delays in implementation. The minister said that there are several departments in Railway Board through whom the proposal for having library inside these two trains, would have taken. And that he is thankful for Rail minister Piyush Goyal for expediting this.
"We will expand this facility depending on the demand we receive from passengers. The books on wheels will be mainly on inter-city trains where journeys are of 4-6 hours," said DK Sharma, General Manager, Central Railway.
