Rail tourism, `Business on Wheels’ to augment Rys’ earning potential

Indian Railways plans to take up eco-tourism and education tourism in the North East, railway minister Sadananda Gowda said while presenting Rail Budget 2014-15. He said private participation in this area will also be encouraged and some trains for pilgrims and tourists are intended to be introduced in short run also.

He also proposed train services to special pilgrim circuits like Devi circuit, Jyotirling circuit, Jain circuit, Christian circuit, Muslim / Sufi circuit, Sikh circuit, Buddhist circuit, Famous Temple circuit identified for pilgrimage services. The minister proposed to introduce specially packaged trains for these circuits.

Besides he proposed a tourist train that will run from Gadag to Pandarpur via Bagalkot, Bijapur and Solapur covering the pilgrim and tourist places of Karnataka and Maharashtra.

Another such train will start from Rameshwaram covering pilgrim and tourist places like Bengaluru, Chennai, Ayodhya, Varanasi and Haridwar. He said, he also plans to run a special train featuring life and work of Swami Vivekananda to inculcate good moral values and propagate the teachings of Swami Vivekananda.