The cheaper version of India's best-known tourist train Palace on Wheels will be launched next week. Called Bharat Darshan, the train will be flagged off from Madurai and take passengers on a 16-day tour of important places in southern and northern India.
According to sources, the trip will cost the normal train fare plus an additional charge for accommodation and in-city transport. "The service will be the common man's Palace on Wheels," an IRCTC official said.
The train will pass through Madurai, Dindigul, Tiruchirapalli, Madras, Nellore, Vijayawada, Warangal, Agra Cantt, Delhi, Amritsar, Chandigarh, Hardwar, Varanasi, Gaya, and Allahabad before returning to Madurai. It will take tourists to pilgrimage sites and places of historical significance on the way.
According to IRCTC officials, by the end of the year, Karnataka will have its own tourism train. "Special coaches are being manufactured at the Integrated Coach Factory in Chennai. Two other luxury tourist trains have already started operating, one being Heritage, which plies between Jaipur and Bikaner, and the other, Deccan Odyssey, between Maharashtra and Goa," an official said. "We have also received requests from Kerala and Madhya Pradesh for such trains," he added.
Tourist trains are run on a revenue-sharing basis. While the ministry provides the rolling stock, the states are expected to handle the marketing.
Railway officials say once the proposed budget hotels are ready, they will be rented out to passengers travelling by these tourist trains.
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