The Indian Railway Catering and Tourism Corporation Limited (IRCTC), South Zone, Chennai will operate Bharat Gaurav Train tour named Diwali Ganga Snana Yathirai to coincide with the forthcoming Deepavali festival. The package tour commences on November 9 and ends on November 17.
The highlight of this eight-nights and nine-days package tour is that tourists can have ‘Ganga Snanam’ at Kashi on the day of Deepavali festival. The tour will cover holy places such as Prayagraj, Varanasi, Gaya and Rameswaram. It will end with a visit to the Sri Ramanathaswamy Temple at Rameswaram.
Speaking to journalists at Tiruchi regarding the upcoming tour, the IRCTC, South Zone, Chennai, Group General Manager P. Rajalingam Basu said the Bharat Gaurav Tourist Train for this customised tour will consist of 14 coaches including three AC-3 tier coaches, eight sleeper coaches and a pantry car. The tourist train will start from Tenkasi with stoppages at Rajapalayam, Sivakasi, Virudhunagar, Madurai, Dindigul, Tiruchi, Thanjavur, Kumbakonam, Mayiladuthurai, Chidambaram, Tirupadripuliyur, Villupuram, Chengalpattu, Tambaram, Chennai Egmore and Gudur for tourists to board from these destinations.
The IRCTC has planned to take a total number of 600 tourists for the ‘Diwali Ganga Snana Yathirai’, Mr. Rajalingam Basu adding that 300 bookings for the tour have already been done so far. The tour is essentially meant for tourists and senior citizens from Tamil Nadu, he added.
The package cost per person for the economy class is ₹16,850 and ₹30,500 per person for the comfort class. Air-conditioned and non air-conditioned accommodation would be arranged along with AC and Non-AC road transfers. The bookings could be done through the website www.irctctourism.com. The Tourism Information and Facilitation Centres at Madurai and Tiruchi could be contacted for queries and clarifications in the mobile numbers 8287931977 and 8287932070 respectively.
This will be the ninth Bharat Gaurav Tourist train tour to be operated by the IRCTC, South Zone, Chennai this year. The tourists would be provided with South Indian Tamil vegetarian food. There would be a team of tour managers and security staff on board the tourist train to attend to the needs of the tourists during travel. A medical kit would also be kept in the tourist train. Flameless cooking using induction stoves would be done in the pantry cars.
Closed circuit television units would be installed in the coaches and announcements would be made through the public address system inside. The movement of the train and its schedule would be monitored by the IRCTC, Mr. Rajalingam Basu said, adding that “safety of the tourists will be our responsibility,” he said.
