The Central Railway and Indian Railway Catering and Tourism Corporation (IRCTC) is looking at making this facility available and are in touch with Shri Saibaba Sansthan Trust in Shirdi for the same.
If all goes well, pilgrims and travellers from Mumbai may soon be able to book train tickets to Shirdi and tickets for entering visiting the temple at one go. The Central Railway and Indian Railway Catering and Tourism Corporation (IRCTC) is looking at making this facility available and are in touch with Shri Saibaba Sansthan Trust in Shirdi for the same.
Senior railway officials said that they are doing this to promote and attract more passengers going to Shirdi by train. "We are working out schemes in which people booking online rail tickets for Shirdi can also avail the scope to book tickets for the temple," said a CR official.
It is believed that after booking train tickets, the passengers will gain access to another link that would direct them to the site to book temple tickets.
The IRCTC is also working out the basic details for this. The officials said that the idea is in a nascent stage. The trains would ideally be the ones that would pass or terminate at Shirdi, such as Dadar-Sainagar Shirdi Express, Dadar-Sainagar Shirdi SF Express, and Mumbai CSMT-Sainagar Shirdi Passenger.
The pain point that the authorities are trying to sort out is prior booking. Currently, one can book tickets to Shirdi temple 60 days in advance, while train tickets can be booked 120 days in advance. The rail authorities are trying to convince the Shirdi temple trust to extend their advance booking dates by 120 days.
Senior railway officials from the Railway Board said that they are working out a similar system for other temple towns like Tirupati, Siddhi Vinayak, Rameshwaram, etc, for religious tourism.
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