NEW DELHI: The Indian Railway Catering and Tourism Corporation (IRCTC) is contemplating introducing new routes to connect major pilgrimage sites associated with Lord Ram’s exile after Shri Ramayana Yatra Train Tours received an overwhelming response.
The IRCTC has added four new trains to the Ramayana circuit, scheduled in November and December, for which the booking is underway. All seats in the train running on the flagship route originating from New Delhi have already been booked.
During the 17-day long journey starting November 7, travellers will get to visit nine cities including Ayodhya, Varanasi, Prayag, Chitrakoot, Hampi and Rameshwaram. “All Shri Ramayana Yatra tour packages have been well-received. Responses are highly motivational. The train — Shri Ramayana Yatra — scheduled to depart next month, has already been fully booked. Tremendous response has encouraged us to plan to launch more routes. Soon, we will be launching more Shri Ramayana Yatra packages with deluxe trains,” said an IRCTC official.
The official said that booking-related information about tour packages including boarding and deboarding stations under the Shri Ramayana Yatra programme was available on www.irctctourism.com. The people could also approach the zonal and regional IRCTC offices. The corporation has also set up tourism facilitation centres at major railway stations for the booking of the packages.
With the festive season approaching, the IRCTC, premier travel and tourism company under the Ministry of Railways, announced a series of ‘Shri Ramayana Yatra Train Tours’ last month matching the requirement of the budget and premium segment tourists. For the budget segment tourists of north India, the IRCTC will run another train from Sri Ganganagar in Rajasthan. The journey will begin from November 25.
Train from Madurai for South India’s pilgrims
For pilgrims from south Indian states, it has announced a train starting from Madurai. The 12 nights-13-days’ tour will start from November 16. The tour will be covering Hampi, Nasik, Chitrakoot, Prayagraj and Varanasi.