Indian Railway’s PSU IRCTC is ready to launch 3rd corporate train for the general public. This train will run between Varanasi and Indore and has been named as Kashi Mahakal Express. The train will be inaugurated on 16th February 2020 from Varanasi followed by routine continuous commercial runs from 20th February 2020 onwards
This train is in addition to two earlier corporate trains run by IRCTC namely Lucknow- New Delhi- Tejas and Ahmedabad-Mumbai Tejas.
It will be a superfast air-conditioned overnight journey train with berths.
The train will connect three Jyotirlinga – Omkareshwar (Near Indore), Mahakaleshwar (Ujjain) and Kashi Vishwanath (Varanasi) besides also connecting the industrial and educational hub of Indore and Bhopal the capital of Madhya Pradesh. The train will operate thrice a week between Varanasi and Indore via Ujjain, Sant Hiradnagar (Bhopal), Bina, Jhansi, Kanpur, Lucknow/Prayagraj and Sultanpur.
Kashi Mahakal Express is the third corporate passenger train being operated by IRCTC taking forward the initiative of Ministry of Railways to operate more such corporate trains in the country.
Being the first long distance overnight journey train, IRCTC has geared up to provided a host of facilities and services to the passengers on-board including high quality vegetarian food, on-board bedrolls and housekeeping services and on-board security services. Besides, every passenger travelling in the train will be covered with a complimentary travel insurance of Rs. 10 lakhs during the journey.
On the lines of IRCTC Tejas Express, the train will be available exclusively available for booking on IRCTC website www.irctc.co.in and its mobile app ‘Irctc Rail Connect’. The passengers can also get their tickets booked through authorised agents and online travel partners of IRCTC. The train will have an advance reservation period of 120 days will have only general and foreign tourist quota. The current booking will be available to the passengers on the platform itself after preparation of first chart, 4 hours to 5 minutes before the scheduled departure of the train.
IRCTC is further facilitating the passengers by allowing automatic full refund of the train fare in case of cancellation of the train for both waitlisted as well as confirmed e-tickets.
Giving due respect to the religious sentiments of the travelling passengers and offer them with a value addition for various religious places and tourism sites covered by Kashi Mahakal Express, IRCTC is making tour packages of cities and religious sites covered by the train such as Kashi, Omkareshwar, Mahakaleshwar, Bhopal, Sanchi, Ujjain, Bhimbetka, Ayodhya and Prayag.
Kashi Mahakal Express will be the first passenger train of its own kind which promises to be a full service overnight journey train with high levels of on-board services complemented with exclusive optional tour packages for the passengers covering the religious, business as well as tourism sites of the states of Uttar Pradesh and Madhya Pradesh.