New Delhi: Railway minister Sadananda Gowda on Tuesday announced special pilgrim circuits like Devi circuit, Jyotirling circuit, Jain circuit among others for running pilgrim trains.
The Rail Budget also announced 18 new line surveys, which included rail connectivity to “Char Dhams”, including Kedarnath and Badrinath. Aiming at boosting domestic tourism, the minister announced several tourist trains connecting pilgrim centres across the country.
The NDA government’s maiden Rail Budget proposed to introduce trains in the Christian circuit, Muslim/Sufi circuit, Sikh circuit, Buddhist circuit and other famous temple circuits across the country.
Private participation in the pilgrim sector will also be encouraged, Mr Gowda said while presenting the Budget. He said there is a huge untapped potential in the field of domestic tourism in the country.
“We plan to take up eco-tourism and education tourism in the north-eastern states,” he said.
Railways also proposed a tourist train from Gadag to Pandarpur passing through Bagalkot, Bijapur and Solapur covering the pilgrim and tourist places of Karnataka and Maharashtra and tourist train from Rameswaram covering pilgrim and tourist places like Bengaluru, Chennai, Ayodhya, Varanasi and Hardwar.
The Budget also proposed a special train featuring life and works of Swami Vivekananda.
