A special tourist train carrying passengers across the country to cities associated with social reformer BR Ambedkar was flagged off from Delhi on Friday on the occasion of his 132nd birth anniversary. Bharat Gaurav tourist train journey on Ambedkar Circuit was flagged off by Union Tourism Minister G Kishan Reddy and Union Social Justice and Empowerment Minister Virender Kumar from Hazrat Nizamuddin Railway Station.
The special train will take passengers on a tour of seven nights and eight days and will cover major destinations in Maharashtra and Bihar. Reddy said that the objective of this Bharat Gaurav tourist train is to give a glimpse of the life and legacy of Bharat Ratna, Babasaheb Ambedkar to all the passengers.
The tourism minister said the train is also aimed at promoting domestic tourism and the spirit of ‘Ek Bharat Shreshtha Bharat’. He said the government under the leadership of Prime Minister Narendra Modi “has developed sites related to Babasaheb Ambedkar not only in India but also in London”.
Reddy said that the government has taken several steps to promote the ideals of Babasaheb Ambedkar in today’s world. The minister also later tweeted pictures of the ceremony. “Remembering the life and legacy of Baba Saheb Ambedkar. Flagged off the first Baba Saheb Ambedkar Yatra-Bharat Gaurav train from Delhi’s Nizamuddin Railway Station on the occasion of Ambedkar Jayanti,” he tweeted.
“The Ambedkar Yatra is one of the many initiatives of the Narendra Modi government to remember his legacy and pay tribute to his indelible contribution to the nation’s progress,” he wrote on the microblogging site.
Virendra Kumar, Union Minister of Social Justice and Empowerment, said the Bharat Gaurav train is an “effective step” to promote ‘Ek Bharat Shrestha Bharat’ under “Dekho Apna Desh.”.
He also said that Babasaheb faced very challenging situations in his life, and his life journey of empowering the last man in the hierarchy and removing discrimination on the basis of caste is very inspiring.
The launch of Bharat Gaurav, a tourist train, is in line with the central government’s initiative “Dekho Apna Desh” to promote special interest circuits in domestic tourism, the tourism ministry said in a statement.
Babasaheb worked all his life for equality and fraternity and today the train is representative of that equality and traveling passengers will come back with many memories and knowledge about the principles of Babasaheb Ambedkar.
IRCTC, in collaboration with the Ministry of Tourism, is operating its first tour on the Ambedkar Circuit on an eight-day special tour that started from Hazrat Nizamuddin Railway Station on Friday, the statement said.
The Ambedkar Yatra will include visits to key places associated with the social reformer’s life such as New Delhi, Mhow and Nagpur, while holy Buddhist sites such as Sanchi, Sarnath, Gaya, Ai and Rajgir, and Nalanda are also on the itinerary. , it said.
The ministry said the tourist train first halted at New Delhi Railway Station, from where the tourists were taken by buses to visit the Babasaheb Ambedkar Memorial. The next stop of the train will be Dr. Ambedkar Nagar (Mhow), his birthplace (Bhim Janmabhoomi). It will then proceed to Nagpur Railway Station, where tourists will proceed to visit Deekshabhoomi, an iconic monument of Navayana Buddhism.
The train will leave from Nagpur to Sanchi. Sanchi’s places of interest include the Sanchi Stupa and other Buddhist sites. After Sanchi the next stop would be Varanasi. A visit to Sarnath and Kashi Vishwanath Temple will be part of the sightseeing.
Gaya is the next and last destination where the train reaches on the sixth day of the journey. The holy site of Bodh Gaya is where tourists visit the famous Mahabodhi Temple and other monasteries. Next day tourists proceed for sightseeing of Rajgir and Nalanda in Bihar by road. Buddhist sites and ruins are prominent sites in Nalanda.
The ministry said the train will then leave Gaya for New Delhi, ending the circuit tour. The tourist train has a well-equipped pantry car to rustle up freshly made vegetarian food for the tourists. It said that an infotainment system, CCTV cameras and security guard services should also be available on board.