Vaishno Devi pilgrimage becomes easy

Tribune News Service

Advertisement

Amritsar, January 28

People wishing to perform a pilgrimage to the cave shrine of Vaishno Devi may now look forward to a comfortable journey because a weekly train from Ahmedabad to Katra, base camp for the Vaishno Devi shrine, with a stopover in Amritsar, started this week.

The train will run every Monday and facilitate a large number of the city residents and tourists, who halt here before proceeding to the cave shrine. Earlier, there was a train, which only ran up to the Jammu railway station, but due to its odd timing, it was not popular.

The Ahmedabad-Katra weekly express train departs from Ahmedabad at 19:00 hours every Sunday and reaches Katra at 06.50 hours on the third day, i.e Tuesday. On the same day, the Katra-Ahmedabad weekly express train departs from Katra at 10.35 hours (on every Tuesday) for Ahmedabad.

En route, the train halts at Sabarmati, Mahesana, Palanpur, Abu Road, Falna, Rani, Marwar, Beawar, Ajmer, Kishangarh, Phulera, Jaipur, Gandhinagar Jaipur, Dausa, Bandikui, Alwar, Khairthal, Rewari, Bhiwani, Hisar, Sirsa, Bhatinda, Firozpur, Jalandhar city, Beas, Amritsar, Pathankot, Jammutavi and Udhampur stations in both directions.

Railway officials stated that the major feature of the train journey was that the train would cross the bridge on the Jhajjar, which is the longest steel girder bridge in India with a height of 85 meters, raised at an approximate cost of Rs 1,132 crore. Besides, there were eight tunnels and 29 minor bridges on the Udhampur-Katra track, which is about 25 km long.

The train has a total of 14 coaches, including one coach of AC II Tier and AC III Tier. Travel between Amritsar-Katra in a general coach costs Rs 100 for a person, Rs 190 in a sleeper coach, Rs 485 in AC III tier and Rs 690 in AC II Tier.