The Indian Railway Catering and Tourism Corporation (IRCTC), a subsidiary of the Indian Railways, will be running four pilgrim special trains from Rajkot in Gujarat in February and March.
Rahul Himalayan, the Group General Manager of IRCTC Western Zone, said, "All the four trains will commence from and terminate in Rajkot. Two pilgrim special trains will start from February. The Dakshin Darshan Pilgrim Special Train, covering Nashik, Aurangabad, Parli, Kurnool town, Rameswaram, Madurai, and Kanyakumari will be from February 14 to February 25.”
He added, "Namami Gange Pilgrim Special Train, which will run between February 27 and March 8, will cover Varanasi, Gaya, Kolkata, Ganga Sagar, and Puri."
Also Read | Coronavirus India: IRCTC issues list of 30 special passenger trains to run from Tuesday
"The Bharat Darshan trains will start from March. The Kumbh Haridwar Bharat Darshan Train, covering Mathura, Haridwar, Rishikesh, Amritsar, and Vaishnodevi will run from March 6 to March 14. While the South India Tour Bharat Darshan Train will cover Rameswaram, Madurai, Kanyakumari, Trivandrum, Guruvayur, Tirupati, and Mysore from March 20 to March 31," added Himalayan.
Besides, the IRCTC will also be restarting Tejas Express trains (Lucknow-New Delhi & Ahmedabad-Mumbai). A press release on the same mentioned that it would be “for the service of the people for catering to the growing passenger demand due the festive season. Both the trains are expected to restart operations from 17th October 2020.” IRCTC will also be restarting its Corporate Tejas Express train on the Ahmedabad-Mumbai route from February 14.
Also Read | Third IRCTC pvt train to run between Varanasi and Indore from Feb 20
"The Tejas train operations were stopped in March of last year owing to the Corona pandemic outbreak. The IRCTC once again resumed these services as the lockdown was eased in October last year, but due to low occupancy, the operations were stopped. But now once again, we have decided to resume its functioning. The train will be running on Fridays, Saturdays, and Sundays and Mondays," said Vayunandan Shukla, the joint General Manager of the tourism, IRCTC.
"The ticket prices of these special train covers travel, food, local bus transport, Dharmashala accommodation, tour guide, and housekeeping expenses," said Shukla.
(With Inputs from IANS)
