The Indian Railway Catering and Tourism Corporation (IRCTC), which is scheduled to run Mahaparinirvan Express train to 11 Buddhist circuits in the country from September 27, has excluded Odisha from the route list
Sources said the IRCTC has citied two reasons for the exclusion. First, the State Tourism Department has not submitted any specific proposal and, second, the IRCTC has found the Odisha circuit not economically viable.“Inclusion of any place in the Buddhist circuit depends on the demand by the State concerned and we have not received any specific proposal from Odisha this year,” IRCTC officials said.
According to them, while Bihar, Uttar Pradesh, Delhi and Nepal have a large number of Buddhist tourist spots, Odisha has a few spots, the ‘diamond triangle’ of lalitgiri, Udaygiri and Ratnagiri and some places in Puri and Bhubaneswar.On CM’s request, the IRCTC had planned to link the train’s route to Odisha circuit and accordingly the train was scheduled to arrive in Odisha on December 20, 2012. But it did not happen due to poor bookings.
Notably, State Tourism Minister Ashok Panda had raised the issue at the State Tourism Ministers’ meet in New Delhi requesting the Union Minister of State for Railways to extend one trip of the train to Odisha.
According to officials, the train is scheduled to start its seven-month-tour on September 27 and cover Bodhgaya, Rajgir, Nalanda, Varanasi, Sarnath, Gorakhpur, Kushinagar, lumbini, Gonda, Shravasti and Agra and culminate in Delhi on March 28, 2015.