Central Railway on Monday said it will run 156 Ganpati Special trains in view of the Ganpati festival in September 2023. The bookings for which will open on June 27, a statement released by Central Railway read.
Earlier, Railways announced to run 857 special trains towards Puri and back during the Jagannath Rath Yatra this year for approximately 20 lakh pilgrims.
Railways Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw said that all arrangements have been made at the Puri station for the Pilgrims coming here for the Rath yatra. This year, the Puri Rath Yatra will take place on June 20 and culminate on June 28, 2023.
“All arrangements have been made at the Puri station for the Pilgrims coming here for the Rath yatra. 857 special trains have been arranged for approx 20 lakhs pilgrims (expected to come for the yatra),” said Vaishnaw.
Rath Yatra Special trains
East Coast Railway in a release on June 18, said that the Rath Yatra Special trains will be operated for the passengers visiting Puri during the nine-day festival. The special trains will be operated till June 30.
The special trains will be operated from different towns of Odisha as well as neighbouring states like Chhattisgarh, Andhra Pradesh and West Bengal. According to East Coast Railway, the trains will be operating from Bhubaneswar, Cuttack, Berhampur, Bhadrak, Jajpur, Keonjhar, Paradip, Gunupur, Sambalpur, Jagdalpur, Rourkela and Angul in Odisha and Visakhapatnam in Andhra Pradesh to Puri.
The Visakhapatnam-Puri special train number 08901, will commence its journey from Visakhapatnam at 2:30 PM on June 19 and 27. It is scheduled to arrive in Puri the following day at 1:15 AM. On the return journey, the Puri-Visakhapatnam train, number 08902, will depart from Puri at 10:55 PM on June 20 and 28, reaching Visakhapatnam at 7:30 AM the next day.
