9 Trains from (SNI)SINDI to (WR)WARDHA JN

·The train connects important and renowned pilgrim places in North India like Mata Vaishno Devi Temple, Haridwar and Rishikesh

 Â·Operated by IRCTC, 50% of the seats have already been booked

‘Bharat Gaurav’ trains concept introduced by Ministry of Railways has been a huge success over South Central Railway and 100% occupancy is registered in the recent five trips run by IRCTC towards Kashi & surrounding places. o­n the back of the enthusiastic response shown by the rail passengers, the Indian Railways Catering and Tourism Corporation (IRCTC) has planned new tourist circuit as part of Bharat Gaurav trains covering other renowned and important pilgrim destinations across North India.

As part of it, IRCTC has announced a new tourist package namely “Mata Vaishno Devi, Haridwar and Rishikesh”, Bharat Gaurav Tourist Train starting from Secunderabad Railway Station. The train will cover important pilgrim and historical places in Northern parts of the country, while providing boarding / de-boarding facility at seven important enroute stations in Telangana and Maharashtra. Within a few days of announcing the new tourist train towards Mata Vaishno Devi Temple, more than 50% of the seats have been booked depicting the interest of the people towards pilgrimage to North India.

Going into the details of the package, the Tourist circuit train “Mata Vaishnodevi with Haridwar & Rishikesh” will provide boarding / de-boarding facility at Secunderabad, Kazipet, Peddapalli, Ramagundam and Sirpur Khagaznagar in Telangana as well as Balharshah, Wardha and Nagpur in Maharashtra. The train will cover important places like Katra, Agra, Mathura, Vrindavan, Katra, Haridwar and Rishikesh. The individual tourists who wish to travel from Katra station to the Vaishno Devi temple by either pony / doli / helicopter service, need to book o­n their own. IRCTC will guide the tourists in this aspect and the ample time is provided in the itinerary to return back conveniently after Darshan.

The whole trip will be covered over a period of 8 nights / 9 days period. The package is all inclusive of travel facilities (including both rail as well as road transport), accommodation facility, Catering arrangements tour escorts, Security,Public announcement facility, Travel insurance etc.

For more details o­ne can visit IRCTC website: http://www.irctctourism.com with Booking Link: https://www.irctctourism.com/pacakage_description?packageCode=SCZBG05and can also approach o­n phone numbers of Secunderabad office : 9701360701, 8287932228, 9110712752

Total 380 Special Trains are making 6369 Trips with over 80 thousand coaches

Indian Railways is running 1770 more trips this year as compared to total summer special trains (4599 trips by 348 trains) run in 2022

During this summer season this year, for the convenience of railway travelers and to clear extra rush of passengers, Indian Railways is running 6369 trips of 380 special trains. Indian Railways is running 1770 morr trips this year as compared to total summer special trains (4599 trips by 348 trains) run in 2022. While an average 13.2 trips per train was run in last summer, 16.8 trips per special train are being made in the current year. The major destinations connected are Patna-Secunderabad, Patna-Yesvantpur, Barauni-Muzaffarpur, Delhi-Patna, New Delhi-Katra, Chandigarh-Gorakhpur, Anand Vihar- Patna, Visakhapatnam-Puri-Howrah, Mumbai-Patna, Mumbai-Gorakhpur.

In totality, these 380 special trains making 6369 trips have 25794 General Coaches and 55243 Sleeper Coaches. General Coaches have a capacity of 100 passenger whereas Sleeper Coaches have a capacity of 72 passengers in ICF and 78 in LHB.

In order to cater the summer rush, all the zonal Railways spread across the country have geared up to run special trips. Through these special trains, connectivity from various states like Karnataka, Andhra Pradesh, Telangana, Maharashtra, Odisha, West Bengal, Bihar, Uttar Pradesh, Delhi is being ensured. South Western Railway catering to majorly Karnataka region is running maximum trips 1790 this summer season in comparison to 779 trips last year whereas Western Railway catering majorly to the state of Gujarat has also geared up to run 1470 trips in comparison to 438 trips last year. It is also pertinent to mention that this year, South Central Railway is running 784 trips which is 80 trips more than the last year. To deal with the heavy rush in northern part of the country, North Western Railway is running 400 trips, East Central Railway is running 380 trips. Northern Railway has also planned to run 324 trips this year.

However, neither the number of trains nor the number of trips run by specific special train(s) is static for the entire season. Planning and running of special trains is a continuous process for which inputs are taken from all the communication channels 24x 7 like media reports, Social media platforms, Railway Integrated helpline number 139, apart from details of waitlist passengers in PRS system to assess demand of trains o­n a particular route. Based o­n this requirement, number of trains and number of trips are augmented.

A watch o­n any malpractices – like cornering of seats, over-charging and touting activity etc. is being kept by the team of commercial and RPF Staff.