The first Jyotilinga special train of Dhanbad left the city railway station on Friday this morning with 650 passengers for different pilgrimage sites of the country, including 12 jyotirlinga on board.

Dhanbad MLA, Raj Sinha who flagged off the train along with regional director of Indian Railway Catering and Tourism Corporation (IRCTC), Rajesh Kumar after performing the traditional rituals lauded the effort of the Union government in launching the special train services at subsidised rate for passengers and simultaneously demanded launching of special train for the newly inagurated Kashi Vishwanath Corridor.

Notably the train during its 13 day and 12 night travell will go to famous pilgrimage centres and jyotirlingas including Mahakaleshwar, Omkareshwar, Somnath, Nageshwar, Trayambakeshwar, Bhimashankar Jyotirlinga, Dwarkadhish temple, Siridi and Shani Singnapur.

Rajesh Kumar, Regional Director of IRCTC said, “Besides the catering facility in the train, fooding and lodging will also be provided to the passengers at the pilgrimage sites by IRCTC,” adding trasport from the railway station to the pilgrimage centre will also be provided by IRCTC.

Depending on the covid situation IRCTC will also operate special trains for other pilgrimage centres.

Notably, earlier, a spcial pilgrimage train earlier also travelled to Vaishno Devi and other sacred places of North India from Ranchi on December 12.

Talking to media at the Dhanbad Railway station a senior citizen traveling in the train said, “The train is quite convenient for senior citizens and elderly persons who will not have to face difficulty in changing train at different railway stations for visiting different pilgrimage centres.”

Other passengers on board the train said that the group travel has other advantages besides instilling a sense of security and comfortability - it also allows passengers to to interact with one another.