Railways launches deluxe tourist train to cover heritage sites of Gujarat; routes, fare, other details

The Indian Railways has come up with a special tour 'Garvi Gujarat' to showcase the cultural and spiritual heritage of Gujarat by running its Bharat Gaurav deluxe AC tourist train. This special train, operated by IRCTC, will depart on 28 February from Delhi-Safdarjung Railway Station for an 8-day tour. The boarding and deboarding facility is provided at Gurugram, Rewari, Ringas, Phullera, and Ajmer railway stations.

The first stoppage has been kept at Kevadiya wherein the Statue of Unity will be the centre of attraction. The entire train will cover a distance of 3500 kms during the course of 8 days journey.

Among the major sites included in this tour are the Statue of Unity, Champaner archaeological park, Adhlej Step Well, Akshardham Temple at Ahmedabad, Sabarmati Ashram, Modhera Sun Temple, and the Rani ki Vao, another UNESCO site at Patan.

Besides these, Somnath Jyotirlinga, Nageshwar Jyotirlinga, Dwarkadheesh Temple, and Beyt Dwarka are the religious sites covered in the week-long tour. There will be a two-night stay in the hotels, one each at Kevadiya and Ahmedabad respectively, while the visit to places at Somnath and Dwarka will be covered in the day halt at the destination.

The state-of-the-art deluxe tourist train has fine dining restaurants, a modern kitchen, shower cubicles in coaches, sensor-based washroom functions, foot massager. The fully air-conditioned train provides two types of accommodation, the first and second AC. The train has enhanced security features of CCTV cameras and security guards for each coach and is also equipped with an infotainment system for the entire train.

The railways has fixed a price of Rs 52250 per person for AC 2, Rs 67140 per person for AC 1 (Cabin), and Rs 77400 for AC 1 (Coupe). This will cover train journey in respective class, night stay at AC hotels, all meals (veg only), all transfer and sightseeing in buses, travel insurance and services of a guide, etc.

In order to make this package more attractive and affordable to a large population, the IRCTC has tied up with payment gateways for providing EMI payment options for breaking the total payment into small amounts EMIs.