IRCTC to run 4 pilgrim special trains

Gandhinagar: 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.

"Namami Gange Pilgrim Special Train, which will run between from February 27 and March 8, will cover Varanasi, Gaya, Kolkata, Ganga Sagar and Puri."

"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 be restarting its Corporate Tejas Express train on the Ahmedabad-Mumbai route from February 14.

"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 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, Sundays and on 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.