Hyderabad, June 2 (FN Bureau) South Central Railway (SCR) on Friday said the Bharat Gaurav Tourist Train, starting from Secunderabad Railway station to Mata Vaishno Devi Temple, located in Trikuta hills, 13 kms from Katra (in the Union territory of Jammu and Kashmir) on June 10, has received good response. ‘Bharat Gaurav’ trains concept introduced by Ministry of Railways has been a huge success over South Central Railway and 100% occupancy is registered in the recent five trips run by IRCTC towards Kashi & surrounding places, a SCR release said. Due to the enthusiastic response shown by the rail passengers, the Indian Railways Catering and Tourism Corporation (IRCTC) has planned new tourist circuit as part of Bharat Gaurav trains covering other renowned and important pilgrim destinations across North India.
As part of it, IRCTC has announced a new tourist package namely “Mata Vaishno Devi, Haridwar and Rishikesh”, Bharat Gaurav Tourist Train starting from Secunderabad Railway Station. The train will cover important pilgrim and historical places in Northern parts of the country, while providing boarding / de-boarding facility at seven important enroute stations in Telangana and Maharashtra. Within a few days of announcing the new tourist train towards Mata Vaishno Devi Temple, more than 50% of the seats have been booked depicting the interest of the people towards pilgrimage to North India. Going into the details of the package, the release said, the Tourist circuit train “Mata Vaishno Devi with Haridwar & Rishikesh” will provide boarding / de-boarding facility at Secunderabad, Kazipet, Peddapalli, Ramagundam and Sirpur Khagaznagar in Telangana as well as Balharshah, Wardha and Nagpur in Maharashtra.
The train will cover important places like Katra, Agra, Mathura, Vrindavan, Katra, Haridwar and Rishikesh. The individual tourists who wish to travel from Katra station to the Vaishno Devi temple by either pony / doli / helicopter service, need to book on their own. IRCTC will guide the tourists in this aspect and the ample time is provided in the itinerary to return back conveniently after Darshan. The whole trip will be covered over a period of 8 nights / 9 days period. The package is all inclusive of travel facilities (including both rail as well as road transport), accommodation facility, Catering arrangements tour escorts, Security, Public announcement facility, Travel insurance etc, the release added.