Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Sunday flagged off the third private train operated by Indian Railway Catering and Tourism Corporation (IRCTC) between Varanasi and Indore. PM flagged off Kashi Mahakal Express via video conferencing from Varanasi. Till now IRCTC has already successfully launched two Private trains i.e Tejas Express trains on New Delhi-Lucknow and Mumbai-Ahmedabad routes.
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). The private train will also connect industrial and educational hub of Indore, and Bhopal.
Varanasi-Indore Kashi Mahakal Express will depart from Varanasi at 3:15 pm every Sunday and will reach Indore at 9:40 am the next day. Indore-Varanasi Express will depart from Indore at 10:55 am every Monday and reach Varanasi at 5:00 am the next day. The train will halt at Ujjain, Sant Hirdaram Nagar, Bina, Jhansi, Kanpur and Allahabad stations in both directions.
Like the previous IRCTC private trains, the Kashi Mahakal Express will also follow a dynamic fare structure. One-way journey from Varanasi to Indore in Kashi Mahakal Express will cost Rs 1,951 inclusive of four meals. It is worth mentioning that the Indore-Varanasi Kashi Mahakal Express will be the first private train that will run overnight and for a comfortable long-distance journey, the train will feature a host of facilities.
IRCTC will serve vegetarian food onboard. Passengers will enjoy housekeeping services, on-board security services and bedrolls. Passengers will also get complimentary insurance of Rs 10 lakh.
The train will have an advance reservation period of 120 days and will only have general and foreign tourist quota. The current booking will be available to the passengers on the platform after preparation of first chart, four hours to five minutes before the scheduled departure of the train.
