Varanasi: Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Sunday flagged off the third train operated by Indian Railway Catering and Tourism Corporation (IRCTC) between his parliamentary constituency Varanasi and Madhya Pradesh’s Indore.
Modi flagged off the third IRCTC operated train Kashi Mahakal Express via video conferencing from Varanasi, where he is all set to launch 36 projects worth Rs10 billion
The new Kashi Mahakal Express will connect three places — Jyotirlinga-Omkareshwar (near Indore in Madhya Pradesh), Mahakaleshwar (Ujjain in Madhya Pradesh) and Kashi Vishwanath (Varanasi in Uttar Pradesh).
IRCTC Director Rajani Hasija said a third private train will also connect industrial and educational hub of Indore and Bhopal.
She said the train will begin its commercial run from February 20.
The train will have an advance reservation period of 120 days and will only have the general and foreign tourist quotas. The current booking will be available to the passengers on the platform itself after preparation of first chart, four hours to five minutes before the scheduled departure of the train.
The train has features like CCTV cameras, which will be monitored online around the clock from the IRCTC centres, whereas for the first time the IRCTC has brought the marshals in the train for passengers safety and also to make people aware to not smoke inside the train as it has smoke and heat sensors installed in the coaches as well as in the bathroom, for the blind passengers the train coaches have the seat numbers written in braille, and the catering staff dressed in yellow kurta and payjama with a rudraksh mala in their neck to promote the theme.
