Two non air-conditioned (AC) waiting rooms at Mumbai Central railway station will soon be turned into Indian Railways' first pod hotel — a building with a large number of extremely small and ultra-modern 'capsules' or rooms, that provide cheap overnight accommodation.
The hotel will be on the first floor of the station's main building. The Indian Railways-owned Indian Rail Catering Tourism Corporation (IRCTC), that will be constructing the hotel, is working on the design and infrastructure that will be provided in the pods.
The agency plans to construct 30 such capsules, in which passengers can stay up to 12 hours, along with a lounge area, cafeteria, changing areas and washrooms.
The pods are expected to be cheaper than the retiring rooms available for passengers.
The Railways is planning on constructing classic and suite capsules.
Classic pods will be for one passenger, and have lockers, charging sockets, and baggage space, whereas the suite pods will have a large bed for two passengers, personal lockers and Wifi facility.
"Two waiting rooms, designated to men and women passengers, have been allocated for the pod hotel by the Western Railway (WR). Designs and technicalities are being finalised, post which tenders will be floated within two months," said a senior IRCTC official.
Mumbai Central station has three waiting rooms — two non-AC and one AC. "We have nine retiring rooms and after the construction of the pod hotel, we can convert few existing retiring rooms into waiting rooms," said a WR official.
HT had in December 2018 reported about the IRCTC's proposal to construct a pod hotel near Mumbai Central station. India's first pod hotel opened in the city in Andheri in 2017.
MUM CENTRAL GETS GREEN CREDITS
Mumbai Central station has been recently accredited with ISO 14001:25 certification for Enviromental Management System (EMS)
The certification has been awarded for solid waste management bio-gas plant at the station, the provision of day light harvesting system and LED lights at the station