Railways to start special 'Bharat Tirth' tourist trains

In a bid to promote tourism, Railways will be launching 16 special 'Bharat Tirth' trains connecting popular tourist sites as also pilgrimage centres in different parts of the country.

"The running of Bharat Tirth is to emphasise our unity in diversity and bring to reality Kabiguru's (Rabindranath Tagore) words in our national anthem Punjab Sindhu Gujarat Maratha, Dravida Utkala Banga, Vindhya Himachal Yamuna Ganga," railway minister Mamata Banerjee said.

Presenting the 2010-11 budget in Lok Sabha, she said the trains are proposed to run on the following routes:

1. Howrah-Gaya-Agra-Mathura-Vrindavan-New Delhi-Haridwar-Varanasi-Howrah

2. Howrah-Chennai-Puducherry-Madurai-Rameswaram-Kanyakumari-Bangalore-Mysore-Chennai-Howrah

3. Howrah-Vizag-Hyderabad-Araku-Howrah;

4. Howrah-Varanasi-Jammu Tawi-Amritsar-Haridwar-Mathura-Vrindavan-Allahabad-Howrah

5. Howrah-Ajmer-Udaipur-Jodhpur-Bikaner-Jaipur-Howrah
 
6. Mumbai-Pune-Tirupati-Kancheepuram-Rameswaram-Madurai-Kanyakumari-Pune-Mumbai

7. Pune-Jaipur-Nathdwara-Ranakpur-Jaipur-Mathura-Agra-Haridwar-Amritsar-Jammu Tawi-Pune

8. Pune-Ratnagiri-Goa-Bangalore-Mysore-Tirupati-Pune

9. Ahmedabad-Puri-Kolkata-Gangasagar-Varanasi-Allahabad-Indore-Omkareshwar-Ujjain-Ahmedabad

10. Bhopal-Dwaraka-Somnath-Udaipur-Ajmer-Jodhpur-Jaipur-Mathura-Vrindavan-Amritsar-Jammu Tawi-Bhopal