Indian Railway Catering and Tourism Corporation (IRCTC) and Lanka Sportreizen, a leader in the leisure industry, recently re-launched the schedule of the Buddhist Special Train (Mahaparinirvana Express) for Sri Lankan travellers. The unique feature of this service is that most of the important Buddhist monuments/places are covered by this train journey not only in India but in Nepal as well,” said IRCTC Joint General Manager Tourism, Marketing and Corpo-rate Coordination Kamal Kathiat, “Due to this the usual Buddhist circuit Special Train the usual travel packages that range to around 14 days are now cut to 8 days and travellers don’t have to take long bus journeys or domestic travel during the Tour. Hence this journey will be comfortable because of very littleroad travel.” Elaborating on the important sites which will be covered by the Buddhist Circuit Train Kathiat said: ‘The luxury train will make its tour over 8 days. It starts in Delhi and concludes in Delhi. It will take you to Bodhgaya and then it will travel and stop at places like Nalanda, Rajair, Sarnath/Varanasi, Kushinagar and even Lumbini located in Nepal, where Prince Siddhartha (Lord Buddha) was born and also Sravasti. After completing the tour of the Holy Land of Buddha, this train will take you to Agra, a city of historic interest, and tour the Taj Mahal, a world wonder. ‘After completing the tour to Agra you have the choice to visit different optional tours given under the heading, “Extension Tour with Mahaparinirvana Train” or continue to Delhi. The train will also have modern luxuries including fine dining, A/C coaches, hot and cold water, WiFi, safety deposits, bar facelifts and many more. He also said that they have many other train services with more luxury where one whole rail carriage is converted to a suite and also has a bathtub. Lanka Sportreizen, (LSR) Founding Managing Director Thilak Weerasinghe said that they have also partnered with Sri Lankan airline to feed this train with local passengers at key points where it stops. He also said that special family, group and corporate packages too could be arranged and their teams would also handle bookings.
