Guwahati, March 20: Indian Railways will operate the ‘Bharat Gaurav’ deluxe train for a specially-designed tour for tourists to explore hotspots and heritage sites across five North-eastern states from Tuesday.
Official sources said the train tour would start from Delhi’s Safdarjung railway station on March 21 and cover, during the fortnight, places such as Guwahati, Sivasagar, Furkating and Kaziranga in Assam, Unakoti, Agartala and Udaipur in Tripura, Dimapur and Kohima in Nagaland and Shillong and Cherrapunji in Meghalaya.
“The Bharat Gaurav train number 00412 will depart from Delhi’s Safdarjung station at 3:20 pm on Tuesday. Tourists can board and deboard at Ghaziabad, Aligarh, Tundla, Etawah, Kanpur and Lucknow stations. Spanning over 14 nights and 15 days, the first halt of this train will be in Guwahati on March 23 where tourists will visit Kamakhya Temple followed by Umananda Temple and a sunset cruise on the Brahmaputra,” an official statement issued here said.
The train will further depart on overnight journey to reach Naharlagun Railway Station on March 25, which is 30 km from the next destination, Itanagar, the capital of Arunachal Pradesh.
“Subsequently, the journey will cover Sivasagar – the old capital of the Ahom Kingdom in eastern Assam on March 26. The famous Sivadol at Sivasagar is a part of the itinerary besides other heritage sites. Further, the tea gardens in Jorhat and an overnight stay at Kaziranga followed by an early morning jungle safari at Kaziranga National Park will be experienced by the tourists,” the statement said.
The train will thereafter depart from Furkating railway station on March 27 for Tripura where tourists will be taken to the heritage sites of Unakoti and of Agartala, including the famous Ujjayanta Palace. On the next day, the Neermahal palace and Tripura Sundari mandir at Udaipur will be covered in the itinerary.
Post Tripura, the tourists will be taken to Dimapur station on March 29 and thereafter to Kohima by bus for visiting the local sites.
“The final halt for the tourist train will be in Guwahati on April 1. Tourists will be taken to Shillong by road with a pit stop at the Umiam Lake en route. The next day starts with an excursion to Cherrapunji. Besides, Shillong Peak, Elephant Falls, Nawkhalikai falls and Mawsmai caves are a part of the day’s sightseeing,” the statement said.
From Cherrapunji, the tourists travel back to Guwahati railway station to board the train for the return journey on April 2.
Notably, the train has two fine dining restaurants and a kitchen. The fully air-conditioned train provides three types of accommodation – AC I, AC II and AC III. The train has enhanced security features such as CCTV cameras, electronic safes and dedicated security guards appointed for each coach.