Railways to run spl train for Buddhist sites

Indian Railways decides to run Maha Prinirvan Special, an air-conditioned train, connecting Buddhist sites.

In an effort to make the foreign and domestic tourists conversant with Buddhist religious places, the Indian Railways has decided to run a special air-conditioned train connecing several such places, the Rajya Sabha was informed on Friday.

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The train, named MahaPrinirvan Special, will run from March 28.

It will have facilities like on-board/off-board catering and house keeping arrangements, road transfer by air-considitioned vehicles, sightseeing, darshan, visit to holy places.

The train would cover Lumbini, Sarnath, Bodhgaya, Kushinagar, Nalanda, and also Taj Mahal and Fatehpur Sikri in Agra, Minister of state for Railways R Velu said in a written reply.

Indian Railway Tourism and Catering Corporation (IRCTC) has planned to run 11 trips during 2007 and eight during 2008 up to March (depending on its reception) with each trip having a duration of eight days, he said.

The Minister said that option of undertaking partial journey for a minimum duration of three nights is also available to the passengers.

For its successful run, Velu said IRCTC has made all out efforts for marketing, wide publicity and enquiry redressal system.