Around 200 special train services are in the works as the Indian Railways prepare to operate ‘Aastha Special’ trains to Ayodhya following the Ram Mandir Pran Pratishtha (consecration ceremony) on 22nd January. These trains which will run from various cities, tier 1 and tier 2 towns from different states to Ayodhya Dham station and back for 100 days following the Ram Mandir opening ceremony will only have operational stoppages, according to sources in the Railway Ministry.
66 rakes with 22 coaches will be used to run these services to Ayodhya. A circular issued by the railways said the tickets for these trains will be booked for round trips. Notably, tickets for these trains can be booked only through the Indian Railway Catering and Tourism Corporation (IRCTC). These trains can’t be booked through the Passenger Reservation System of Indian Railways.
There will be charges associated with reservations, superfast, catering, service and Goods and Services Tax (GST). IRCTC will provide vegetarian meals for onboard catering.
These trains will be launched from seven stations in Maharashtra including Mumbai, Nagpur, Pune, Wardha, Jalna and Nashik; the national capital’s New Delhi, Old Delhi, Nizamuddin and Anand Vihar; Telangana’s Secunderabad, Hyderabad and Kazipet Jn; nine stations in Tamil Nadu’s consisting of Chennai, Coimbatore, Madurai and Salem among others; Jammu and Kashmir’s Jammu and Katra; Gujarat’s Udhna, Mehsana, Vapi, Vadodara, Palanpur, Valsad and Sabarmati; Madhya Pradesh’s Indore, Bina, Bhopal and Jabalpur as well as Goa. Other cities include Agartala, Tinsukia, Barmer, Dehradun, Bhadrak, Khurda Road and Kottayam.
Trains will arrive in Ayodhya at the end of comparable routes that have been planned from each state. Furthermore, there are five routes that lead to Ayodhya from the northeast with the majority of the trains coming from Assam or Guwahati. The railways declared that the tickets would be reserved for round-trip travel, in a circular. Railways has chosen not to enter the train’s details into its Passenger Reservation System (PRS) even though the IRCTC would handle reservations owing to security considerations.
Ayodhya’s much-awaited Ram Mandir will be inaugurated on 22nd January in the presence of Prime Minister Narendra Modi and other significant dignitaries from the arenas of politics, sports, entertainment, business, religion and spirituality among others.
