Vocal For Spiritual: Indian Railways To Operate Sri Ramayan Yatra By Deluxe AC Tourist Train From November 7

Aiming at promoting religious tourism, Indian Railways will launch Sri Ramayan Yatra by the Dekho Apna Desh Tourist Train from November 7.
IRCTC, the tourism and catering arm of the Railways, will conduct the pilgrimage tour for tourists from Safdarjung station next month.

According to IRCTC, a deluxe AC tourist train with many modern features and amenities would be pressed into service to cover all prominent places associated with the life of Sri Rama.

The 17-day tour will have its first halt at Ayodhya, where tourists will visit Shri Ram Janmabhoomi temple and Hanuman temple and additionally Bharat Mandir at Nandigram.

After Ayodhya, the next destination will be Sitamarhi in Bihar, Sita Ji’s birthplace and Ram-Janaki temple in Janakpur (Nepal), which will be covered by road.

Post Sitamarhi, the train will move to Varanasi, and tourists will get to visit temples at Varanasi, Prayag, Shringverpur and Chitrakoot by road.

Night stay will be provided at Varanasi, Prayag and Chitrakoot.

IRCTC offers a special tour on Ramayana circuit under Swadesh Darshan, covering prominent places associated with life of the Lord Rama.

Earlier, this train was operated in sleeper class only. However, the proposed tour is going to be operated in a deluxe AC tourist train having 1st AC and 2nd AC class coaches with a capacity of accommodating 156 tourists.

Further, the next halt of the train will be at Nasik, wherein visit of Trayambakeshwar temple and Panchvati will be covered.

After Nasik, tourists will get to see Hampi, the ancient Krishkinda city. Here the temple of Hanuman and his birthplace and other heritage and religious sites will be covered.

The state-of-the-art deluxe AC tourist train has a host of astounding features including two fine dining restaurants, a modern kitchen, shower cubicles in coaches, sensor-based washroom functions, and foot massager.

The fully air-conditioned train has enhanced security features of CCTV cameras and security guards for each coach.

IRCTC has launched this special tourist train in line with the Government of India initiative “Dekho Apna Desh” to promote domestic tourism, at a price of Rs 82,950 per person for 2AC and Rs 1,02,095 for 1AC class.

Package price covers train Journey in AC classes, accommodation in AC hotels, all meals (vegetarian only), all transfer and sight-seeing in AC vehicles, travel insurance and services of IRCTC tour managers.

All necessary health precautions will be taken care of by providing safe and healthy travel during the tour. Government/PSU employees can avail LTC facility on this tour as per eligibility based on the guidelines issued by the Ministry of Finance.

In order to ensure safety measures post Covid-19 in the deluxe tourist train, complete vaccination is mandatory for guests of age group 18 or above.

Besides, IRCTC will also provide a safety kit to all tourists comprising a face mask, hand gloves and sanitizer.

Temperature check of all tourists and staff, frequent train sanitization at halt stations and other precautions will be ensured.

Staff shall be screened thoroughly and kitchen and restaurants shall be sanitized after every meal service.