By Express News Service
NEW DELHI: The Southern Railway on Tuesday became the first zone in Indian Railways to get thefirst registered service provider under the “ Bharat Gaurav” scheme with the start of the first service of the theme-based Bharat Guarav train between Coimbatore and Shirdi Sainagar.
The first service of theme-based Bharat Gaurav train started with bookings of 1100 passengers for this maiden round-trip service. Sharing this, ADG PR Railway Rajeev Jain said that the Bharat Gaurav train has been granted stoppage at Mantralayam road station for 5 hours to facilitate holy darshan at Mantralayama temple en route to Sainagar Shirdi from Coimbatore.
“It will take two days in covering the distance between Coimbatore and Sainagar Shirdi with approved stoppages at Wadi, Dharamavaram, Yelahanka, Salem, Erode and Tiruppur on return from Shirdi”, Jain said. Detailing about the composition of train, Jain said that one AC1, 2 of AC2, 8 of 3A coaches and 5 sleepernon-AC coaches with a pantry car have been provided in the composition of 20 coaches of this Bharat Guarav Train.
The registered service provider-South Star Rail will operate this train as it is a registered company.“This service provider has paid Rs 1 crore as security deposit to Southern Railway for the rake of 20 coaches. Besides this, the company has paid Rs 27.79 lakh for annual right to use charges and quarterly fixed haulage charges of Rs 76.77 lakh”, Jain said, adding that the Southern Railway will get an earningof Rs 3.34 crore per annum from the operation of this train.
He said that the service provider has refurbished the interiors of coaches and all the coaches will be manned with round-the-clock cleaning staff and whole teams of professionals.
“The public address system has been installed in each coach for regular communication, paying deviational songs and mantras during the journey. There will be a doctor onboard to attend an emergency and private securities personnel in addition to the RPF cops”, said Jain.
The service of a radio jockey has also been installed in this train to keep the passengers entertained during the journey. The Indian Railway had launched the Bharat Gaurav train in November 2021 with anobjective to showcase India’s rich cultural heritage and magnificent historical places.