Bharat Gaurav trains in ER
EASTERN RAILWAY ORGANIZES MEETING WITH TOUR OPERATORS TO INTRODUCE “THEME BASED BHARAT GAURAV TRAINS”
To tap the vast tourism potential of India, Indian Railways has planned to introduce the theme based tourist circuit trains ‘Bharat Gaurav’ to showcase the country’s rich history & heritage. The meeting was organized with tour operators on theme based ‘Bharat Gaurav’ trains over ER on 8.12.2021.
Shri Soumitra Majumdar, Principal Chief Commercial Manager, Eastern Railway and Shri Amitava Mukherjee, CCM / PM and other senior officers from Eastern Railway side and eight (8) tour operators / service providers participated in the meeting.
Shri Majumdar informed the operators regarding the advantages of this scheme. Various potential themes & circuits like Buddhist Circuit, National Park Circuit, Rajasthan Circuit, South India Circuit were discussed. He expressed the hope that the new scheme of the Railway would be a success. Some important points have been highlighted to the tour operators. Bharat Gaurav trains will run with ICF coaches or service providers can also procure new coaches or bare shelf directly from production units of Indian Railways. The minimum number of coaches will be 14 & maximum is 20 coaches including 2 SLR. Minimum hiring period of Bharat Gaurav trains will be for two years and the maximum period up to the residual codal life of the coaches. In order to ensure highest degree of punctuality of ‘Bharat Gaurav’ trains, it has been decided to accord these tourist trains priority at par with fastest mail / express trains in respective routes.
He further stated that interior / exterior decoration can be done as per party’s choice and cost. In that case only stripping charges will be borne by the Railways. Party can change the carrying capacity of a coach as per their own choice, but the total number of berths should not cross the maximum permissible limit of that particular type of coach. Shri Soumitra Majumdar also pointed out that party can use the whole body (interior / exterior) of the train for advertising purposes / Branding Rights which will give them additional earnings.
Tour operators will have the flexibility to decide the theme, tour packages & cost and will have the liberty to offer all inclusive packages to the tourists including rail travel, hotel accommodation, site seeing etc. Tour operators can apply for registration online.
A customer support unit will also be established under Commercial Department of the concerned Zonal Railway Headquarters. It may be noted that two maintenance staff will be deputed on the train for each trip for attending to unusual occurrences & maintenance related issues during the journey and no extra charge shall be levied for these staff.