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Railways offers subsidised pilgrimage packages
Come December and the railway will launch the ‘Bharat Darshan’ special trains and subsidised 12-day travel packages to destinations of religious importance. Officials say the travel packages have been planned keeping senior citizens in mind. The package will cost `9,960 per head, which would take car of meals (breakfast, lunch and dinner), transportation and stay.
Come December and the railway will launch the ‘Bharat Darshan’ special trains and subsidised 12-day travel packages to destinations of religious importance. Officials say the travel packages have been planned keeping senior citizens in mind. The package will cost `9,960 per head, which would take car of meals (breakfast, lunch and dinner), transportation and stay.
The first train — Jyotirling Bharat Darshan Yatra — will depart from Chandigarh on December 14 and will be back on December 25. Under this package Ujjain, Dwarka, Veraval, Aurangabad and Nasik would be covered. The boarding points for the passengers would be Chandigarh, Ambala, Kurukshetra, Karnal, Panipat, Delhi Cantt, Rewari and Jaipur.
The highlights of the trip will be paying obeisance to Mahakaleshwar temple, Nageshwar Jyotirlinga Somnath Jyotirlinga, Grishneshwar Jyotirlinga and Trayambkeshwar Jyotirlinga besides visiting Aurangabad.
Those opting for the second travel package — Darshan Jagannath — will leave the Chandigarh railway station on January 1, 2016. This train will cover religious places in Puri, Bhubhneshwar, Kolkata, Jasidih, Gaya, Varanasi and Ayodhya.
One of the officials of the railways’ regional office at Chandigarh said, “These tours and packages are generally planned for the senior citizens, but anybody can opt for them. We have been getting a very positive response already for both the trains and more than 50% of the bookings have already been done.”
“The best part of the packages is that the passengers need not worry about the stay, meals or the transportation because everything is taken care by the Indian Railway Catering and Tourism Corporation (IRCTC),” added the official.
