The Royal Orient is the erstwhile Palace On Wheels, which was taken over by the TCGL through an agreement with Indian Railways, and flagged off on February 1, 1995. The meter gauge train had a tour itinerary of eight days and seven nights from Delhi to Delhi via Udaipur, Palitana, Somnath, Delwada, Ahmedabad and Jaipur.

In a year-wise performance analysis of The Royal Orient, number of trips conducted, tourist potential, the number of tourists who had actually travelled and other parameters have been analysed in the CAG report. ``It is clear from the above table (of performance analysis) that losses were incurred by the The Royal Orient despite receipt of grants,'' says the report. Annual grants received by The Royal Orient from the State and Central Governments have been to the tune of Rs 60 lakhs.

The CAG report also indicates the poor publicity work done to promote the train. Dean Pielle Communications (India) Private Ltd, Mumbai, were appointed as public relation consultants (PRC) to market the luxury train overseas. The company was to pay Rs 50,000 per month to the consultant, besides fees to the PRC's associates in France at the rate of Rs 1,51,250 and Rs 1,76,100 per month respectively.

Neither the specific scope of work was defined nor the target for bringing tourists was fixed, the CAG report has said. The appointment order of the PRC was terminated by the next managing director after the six-month period from January 31, 1998 ended. By then Rs 28.51 lakhs had been spent, the report says. The appointment, according to the report, was subject to cancellation on 30 days' notice.

However, the main reason for the heavy losses sustained by the luxury train as analysed by the CAG was low occupancy. In August 1994, it was estimated that TRO would be able to break even at around 40 per cent occupancy. ``However, the occupancy had at no point of time even reached 20 per cent, which was the main reason for the heavy losses.''

The maximum occupancy achieved by the train has been 17.25 per cent, according to the report. Low occupancy, the report says, can be attributed to the lack of publicity among the target audience of upper class Indian and foreign tourists. The report says Indian Railways had permitted complimentary travel to 22 to 39 per cent of total tourists. But, the number of complimentary tourists kept increasing from year to year. The result was that the company suffered losses of Rs 91.85 lakhs from February 1995 to December 1997 due to complimentary travel.