By Avijit Biswas
Bhagalpur: There is some good news for travellers in the eastern region. A special tourist train, the Bharat Gaurav, would be run in the eastern region by the IRCTC. Arun Arora, general manager, eastern railway, informed the press about the running of the special tourist train at a press conference held in Kolkata on Thursday this week.
He informed the Press that for Bharat Gaurav, the special tourist train has been planned in line with the government of India’s initiatives “Ek Bharat Shrestha Bharat” and “Dekho Apna Desh”. The special tourist train would commence its maiden journey from Kolkata on May 20, 2023, the general manager said.
Bharat Gaurav is the first such special tourist train planned to be run by IRCTC in the eastern region. It may be mentioned that the first Bharat Gaurav had been run from Delhi by the IRCTC in June last year. A total of five hundred passengers were taken on the Ramayana Circuit up to Janakpur in Nepal by the special tourist train.
The travel plan decided for the Bharat Gaurav train scheduled to cover the eastern region includes visits to five Jyotirlingas, namely Omakareshar, Mahakaleshwar, Somnath, Nageswar and Trimbakeshwar besides Statue of Unity, Shirdi Sai Baba and Shani Shingnapur. The travel plan is for a total of eleven nights and twelve days.
After leaving Kolkata station en route, several stations located in West Bengal, Jharkhand and Bihar have been identified by the IRCTC where passengers of the special tourist train would be able to board and deboard the train.
The stations identified for boarding and deboarding of passengers include Bandel, Barddhaman, Bolpur Shantiniketan, Rampurhat, Pakur, Sahibganj, Kahalgaon, Bhagalpur, Jamalpur, Kiul, Barauni, Samastipur, Muzaffarpur, Hajipur, Pataliputra, Ara, Buxar, Pt Deen Dayal Upadhyay and Prayagraj Chheoki.
Three travel packages available for Bharat Gaurav include Economy (SL Class) with 315 seats, Standard (3 AC) with 297 seats, and Comfort (2 AC) with 44 seats. Economy class includes accommodation/wash and change in non-AC budget hotels while Standard and Comfort categories include accommodation/wash and change in AC hotels.
The passengers of all classes would be provided with standard vegetarian food. The special tourist train will have professional tour guides, housekeeping staff, unarmed security, surveillance cameras, PA system and the facility for travel insurance.
As per the travel cost decided for Bharat Gaurav per person will have to pay Rs 20,060 for travelling in Economy Class. The per person charges decided for Standard and Comfort categories is respectively Rs 31,800 and Rs 41,600. For the promotion of rail tourism, the Indian Railways is providing approximately 33% concession under the Bharat Gaurav train scheme. The above mentioned travel cost for different classes is inclusive of concessions.
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Writer Avijit Biswas, former principal correspondent of Hindustan Times Bhagalpur bureau, can be contacted at biswasavijit@yahoo.com
Contact number (mobile): +919431095516
