Fancy a unique wedding destination? You can now opt for a railway platform

Indian Railways will allow the public to hold wedding receptions on its platforms soon

Weddings in India are grand affairs. Now, along with banquet halls and hotels, there will be another option available for the soon-to-be-wed to host their reception -- railway platforms. 

Indian Railways will allow the public to hold wedding receptions on its platforms, a report published in Deccan Chronicle said.  The move comes as Indian Railways looks for options to boost its profit.

In a first, wedding receptions will be held at the Surat railway station. The Western Railway (WR) will send the proposal to the Railway Ministry this week, sources said. 

After Union Railway Minister Suresh Prabhu asked the 16 railway zones to innovate on ways to bring about some profit for the railways, the Western Railways came up with the idea to rent out platforms for wedding receptions. The idea was mooted during the Rail Vikas Shivir held last month near New Delhi.

At present, the fourth platform of the Surat station has been picked by the railway officials. Besides Surat, Navapur station, one-half of which falls in Maharashtra and the other in Gujarat has also been chosen to implement the plan.  

“Surat station is massive, and there are people there who would actually pay to have their wedding receptions or parties on platforms as well," Deccan Chronicle quoted a source as saying. 

"We will propose platform no. 4 for the project as it has two-three booking offices, which is ideal for these kind of functions,” he added.  

According to a Business Today report, Indian Railways incurs an annual loss of Rs 33,000 crore.  While nearly Rs 77,000 crore is spent on passenger operations, the Railways receives only Rs 44,000 crore from passenger fares.