Araku Valley Vistadome

Indian Railways' glass-roofed trains began on this line. In April 2017 the first Vistadome coach, built at the Integral Coach Factory in Chennai with glass in its roof and seats that rotate, went into service on the line from Visakhapatnam to the Araku Valley. Vistadome coaches have since spread to other scenic lines, the Konkan Railway among them, but this is where Indian Railways tried the idea first.

It was not put on a fast train. Today the glass coaches ride on the 58501, an all-stops passenger that takes four hours for the 131 kilometres from the coast to Araku, climbing through the Ananthagiri hills of the Eastern Ghats, through dozens of tunnels, to a station board that reads 917 metres. The line was built in the 1960s to carry iron ore, and the ore trains still share it. At Araku the train is not even halfway: it carries on for another ten hours, to Kirandul in Chhattisgarh.

The 58501 leaves Visakhapatnam Junction at seven in the morning and runs out through the city, past Simhachalam, the station below the temple hill, to Kottavalasa Junction. There it leaves the main line along the coast and turns inland onto the Kothavalasa–Kirandul line, taken up in 1960 and opened in 1966–67 to bring iron ore from the Bailadila range to the port at Visakhapatnam. It has been electrified throughout since 1982.

Into the Ghats

For the first hour the line runs across the coastal plain, as far as Shrungavarapukota. Then the climb begins. The track winds up the side of the Ananthagiri hills in curves that let the passengers see their own train from the windows, crosses gorges on tall girder bridges and passes through tunnel after tunnel. Near Borra Guhalu it turns through a full horseshoe, and at tunnel 32 it comes out of the hillside straight onto a bridge beside a waterfall.

Borra Guhalu, the station for the Borra Caves, is reached at about twenty to ten; its board gives its height as 777 metres. The train stands for five minutes. Above it, the line climbs on to Shimiliguda and comes out onto the floor of the Araku Valley, among coffee estates, fields and villages, reaching Araku at 11:00.

The train

The Vistadome is one coach of a long rake, marshalled among the second-class seating and sleeper coaches of an everyday Indian passenger train, behind an electric locomotive. Inside the glass coach the seats rotate to face the windows, and the roof is glass, so the cliffs show overhead in the gorges. In the ordinary coaches the windows open, and the view is the same.

The 58502 brings the train back down from Kirandul in the afternoon, leaving Araku at 15:45, which gives a day visitor just under five hours in the valley. The overnight Kirandul Express uses the line too, but passes Araku after midnight in both directions: for the view, it has to be the passenger.

The passenger train runs daily in both directions. Seats in the Vistadome, in second-class seating and in sleeper class are all reserved.

Visakhapatnam to Araku — 58501

The train continues to Koraput (13:20), Jagdalpur (16:25) and Kirandul (21:00), 472 km from Visakhapatnam.

Araku to Visakhapatnam — 58502

The 58502 leaves Kirandul at 06:00 and calls at Jagdalpur at 09:50 and Koraput at 13:15 on its way to Araku.

Overnight

The 18515 Kirandul Express leaves Visakhapatnam daily at 21:10 and passes Araku at 00:23; the 18516 passes Araku at 23:13 and reaches Visakhapatnam at 03:40. Both run in the dark through the Ghats.

Times are from IRCTC's train schedules, as of October 2026. Check your train on IRCTC (opens in a new tab) before travelling.

Every seat on the passenger train is sold by IRCTC, Indian Railways' booking service, online and in its app, and at station counters. The Vistadome is the class marked EV; second-class seating is 2S and sleeper SL.

Book well ahead. Nine days before Thursday 22 October 2026, the Vistadome from Visakhapatnam to Araku was full, waiting list included, on every date we checked that month, and the return already had a waiting list. Sleeper and second class were nearly as hard to get. The fares below are those IRCTC quoted for that day, one way.

No rail pass covers the line to Araku. Interrail and Eurail are European schemes, and India is not among the countries in Interrail's list of covered railway companies. Indian Railways' own pass for foreign visitors, the Indrail Pass, was withdrawn by Railway Board order on 19 September 2017. Every journey is bought as a ticket for a train, through IRCTC or at the station.

A pass would not help here anyway. Second-class seating from Visakhapatnam to Araku costs ₹45, and even the Vistadome is ₹740.

Checked October 2026 against Interrail's list of railway companies (opens in a new tab) and the Indrail Pass (opens in a new tab).

Araku is the base for the valley, the Borra Caves and the waterfalls below it. Visakhapatnam, where the line starts, deserves a day of its own on the coast before or after the ride.

The morning train makes Araku a day trip from Visakhapatnam, but a night in the valley gives time for the Borra Caves as well. Visakhapatnam is the base for the night before: the train leaves at seven.

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