Astha Special trains to help devotees reach Ayodhya from across India

Devotees from various parts of the country will be able to book tickets for Astha Special trains from IRCTC tourism portal. The trains will run from January to March and the catering services will be handled by IRCTC.

Agra:Ahead of the Ram Mandir consecration, the Indian Railways has decided to run special trains to connect cities across the country with the temple town of Ayodhya. An instruction in this regard has been issued to all the zonal Railways.

The Indian Railway Catering and Tourism Corporation (IRCTC) has prepare package for tourists and the routes along with schedule of Astha Special trains will be released soon. These trains would operate across the country from January to March. All the zones have started making preparations for running these trains.

Railways has entrusted the Railway Protection Force (RPF) and Government Railway Police (GRP) the responsibility of ensuring security of these trains. The Ministry has clarified that negligence in safety of passengers will not be tolerated.

The CCTV cameras are being repaired at all stations and a higher number of RPF and GRP personnel will be deployed in these trains. It has also been decided to introduce 4-hour shifts for the security personnel as it has been found that the present 8-hour duty is tedious for them.

Agra Railway Division's PRO Prashastri Srivastava said that instructions have been received from the headquarters regarding running of Astha Special trains. These trains will run from different stations which are centres of religious and cultural heritage, he said.

Railways has given the responsibility of running these trains to IRCTC and the tickets for Astha Special trains will be issued from the IRCTC tourism portal. Devotees can book round trip tickets.

Also, catering services in these trains will be handled by IRCTC alone. Srivastava said passengers will have to provide an emergency contact number of any relative along with their travel details while booking the ticket. There will be a facility of six free berths in every three coaches for IRCTC employees in these trains.

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