IRCTC has recently flagged off its much-awaited and maiden ‘Swadesh Darshan’ tourist train from Kolkata station. This initiative has been taken by the Indian Railways to promote religious tourism in the country. This pilgrimage special train, ‘Jyotirlinga Tourist Train-Swadesh Darshan’, will be taking tourists around various jyotirlinga (Lord Shiva) temples across the country. This new avatar of the religious train will be covering popular religious destinations like Omkareshwar, Ujjain, Dwarka, the Statue of Unity, Somnath, Nageshwar, Trimbakeshwar, Shirdi, and Shani-Singapur.
Referring to this, IRCTC’s Group General Manager, Eastern Zone, Zafar Azam, stated that the duration of the package is 12 days and 11 nights. After leaving Kolkata, this train will be picking up passengers from Dumka, Bhagalpur, and Jamalpur, whereas a total of 750 pilgrims will be embarking on the trip.
He further added that the train would return on November 17. Although ‘Bharat Darshan’ was introduced by the IRCTC, and was quite popular earlier, the Railway Board decided to discontinue the package about a year ago, and over the next few months, IRCTC will be including short- and long-haul tours under this package.
Reportedly, a train to Southern states will also be launched from Kolkata on January 4 2023, whereas another train will go to Bhutan and the Northeastern states on March 23, 2023.
