Iconic Deccan Queen, the first deluxe train of the Indian Railways, completed 93 glorious years of operations between Pune and Mumbai on Thursday, according to the Central Railway.
Rail enthusiasts and authorities celebrated the Deccan Queen’s birthday with a lot of zeal and cut two big cakes at the Pune railway station on Thursday morning before the train departed for the Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj Terminus in Mumbai. Maharashtra minister Chandrakant Patil was also present on the occasion.
Over the last 93 years of its colourful history, the train has grown from a mere medium of transportation between two cities into an institution binding a generation of intensely loyal passengers, the Central Railway said. For the special day, the train was decorated with colourful garlands, and an attractive rangoli (colourful pattern) was made at the entrance of the platform from the train left.
A music party played tunes of various songs to mark the occasion. As per a Central Railway release, the Deccan Queen had its maiden run on June 1, 1930, which was a major landmark in the history of the Great Indian Peninsula (GIP) Railway, the forerunner of the Central Railway.
It was the first deluxe train introduced to serve two important cities of the region – Mumbai and Pune – and was aptly named after Pune, which is also known as the Queen of Deccan (Dakkhan ki Rani), the release said. Deccan Queen initially had only first class and second-class accommodation, but the first class was discontinued on January 1, 1949 and the second class was redesigned as first class, which continued up to June 1955, when a third class was introduced on this train for the first time, it said.