Bharat Gaurav Train: India has a number of tourist destinations. These tourist destinations play an important role in displaying the nation's vivid and wonderful history. Indian Railways has decided to begin 'Bharat Gaurav' train service to promote tourism at various historical places in India. However, this train service will not operated by Indian Railways themselves, but would be operated by private companies. 'Bharat Gaurav' Train Services would help promote the traditions and culture of India.
According to 'Bharat Gaurav' service policy, any private operator or service provider, like IRCTC, can lease trains from Indian Railways to run 'Bharat Gaurav' train services on theme-based circuits, as a special tourism package. Although the fare would be decided by the service operators, Indian Railways will keep an eye on it to make sure that passengers are not charged exorbitant amounts as fare. This rail initiative is believed to create new employment opportunities in the nation's tourism sector.
What facilities would the 'Bharat Gaurav' train have?
The Indian Railways has allocated 190 trains for this initiative, which would be run solely for the purpose of tourism. This train service will run as per a fixed time-table and not on a regular basis. Railways has allotted 3033 coaches for these train services. Although Indian Railways has earmarked Integral Coach Factory (ICF) coaches for operation of these trains, Vande Bharat, Vista Dome and Linke Hofmann Busch (LHB) coaches would also be added to these services in the future. IRCTC currently operates Ramayana Express, a theme based tourist train service which carries devotees to religious places associated with Lord Ram. Trains under 'Bharat Gaurav' initiative will run under respective tour packages with the operator responsible for taking the tourist from hotel to local tourist destinations.
'Bharat Gaurav' service can be run by any operator:
Any person, trust, tour operator or state government can apply to operate these trains. The state governments of Odisha, Rajasthan, Karnataka and Tamil Nadu have already expressed their interest to operate train services under this initiative.