Bangalore: The Indian Railway Catering and Tourism Corporation Ltd (IRCTC) plans to optimise resources to cater to the needs of the budget traveller, by using unused train coaches.

According to Deepak Chhabra, additional divisional railway manager, Bangalore division, South Western Railway, coaches have been offered to IRCTC for use as part of weekend packages.

"Outbound packages'' to popular destinations such as Shirdi, Goa and Hampi are planned ex-Bangalore shortly, and a similar arrangement with IRCTC-Bhubaneswar is also in the offing to attract inward tourists to Bangalore, Mysore, Hassan, Coorg and Ooty from Bhubaneswar, says B S Kiran, deputy general manager, IRCTC.

A typical four-day-five-night, end-to-end package that would cover the Bangalore-Mysore-Ooty / Coorg route would cost a traveller about Rs5,700, excluding train fare between Bhubaneswar and Bangalore.

The outbound packages are planned for launch in October, with bookings likely to start in about a week.

Similar tie-ups for inward packages from Mumbai and Chennai are still in the work in progress stage.