A special Bharat Gaurav Yatra Train will be operated for spiritual and historic Journey to Four Jyotirlingas and Statue of Unity. Nine-day train tour by Bharat Gaurav special will take tourist to 4 Jyotilinga and Statue of Unity Yatra that will include some of the most sacred temples of the country along with the tallest modern monument in the country.
IRCTC will be the operator of the tour which will start on October 25 in Amritsar and boarding will be offered at Jalandhar, Ludhiana, Chandigarh, Ambala, Kurukshetra, Panipat, Sonipat, Delhi Cantt and Rewari. The tour takes Mahakaleshwar and Omkareshwar in Ujjain, Nageshwar around Dwarka, and Somnath in Veraval (four of the twelve Jyotilinga temples of Lord Shiva) and the Dwarkadhish temple and the Statue of Unity in Kevadiya.
The train can carry 762 passengers, who are allocated into Economy, Standard and Comfort classes, with the fares ranging between Rs 19,555 and Rs 39,410 per head. Offers on board vegetarian meals, accommodation, transfers, sight seeing, travel insurance and security. Accommodation and local transport is differentiated in terms of category with Economy travelers staying in non-AC hotels and in certain instances travelling by auto-rickshaw to the temple. The package does not include monument entry fees, personal charges and tips.
IRCTC has marketed the tour as the one-stop spiritual and cultural tourism offering, a trend of broader interest to market faith-based tourism. The Jyotirlinga temples, dating back to ancient times, and the new Statue of Unity form the contrast of religious piety with national pride, and this tendency is becoming more and more evident in the local tourist trail.
The itinerary is provisional though and can be modified depending on the trains activity and the situation on the ground. IRCTC has recommended passengers to bring valid IDs, and also make sure they are medically fit before they travel.
As pilgrimage travel is experiencing a boom in India, the package will receive good demand among devotees in Punjab, Haryana and Delhi. The attraction to most of them is that they get to visit four sacred shrines and a national landmark in one smooth ride.
Reservation is possible in the irctc official site and in the regional offices of IRCTC at Chandigarh and Delhi
