The next time you visit Bhopal, you could tickle your taste buds at a unique restaurant that looks every inch like a stationary train at a platform.

The rail-coach restaurant-cum-bar, Shan-e-Bhopal, has been built by converting an unused train bogie, with the backdrop of actual sights and sounds of a railway platform. The atmosphere is colonial.

The restaurant is located at Hotel Ashoka Lakeview here and was opened to the public Friday.

The Madhya Pradesh Tourism Development Corporation (MPTDC) had come up with the idea in a bid to promote tourism.

The eatery has been equipped with all the railway paraphernalia, including lights and signals. Actual sounds of a railway platform are being played for special effect. A railway signal has been installed to indicate whether the restaurant is open or closed.

Its other specialties include cast iron furniture, silver cutlery and crockery, old-fashioned street lamps, lanterns and signals that were used by the Great India Peninsular Railway way back in 1849.

'Interestingly, many dishes served at the restaurant have been named after various parts of a bogie and the railway engine. The dishes include Indian, Chinese and Continental,' says A.K. Sen, an MPTDC chef.

'This is the first restaurant in the world to be prepared on a railway theme. The railways are planning to add another coach to the eatery in the near future,' said Dilip Shrivastava, assistant engineer, MPTDC.