After rail and air services between Uttarakhand and Ayodhya, Pushkar Singh Dhami said here on Thursday that a train to connect to temples of the Himalayan state with the rest of India will start running by April.

Additional Chief Secretary Radha Raturi informed that the new long-route train, Manaskhand Express, would be flagged off on April 15 to ferry devotees and tourists of other states to the temples of the Kumaon region in Uttarakhand.

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He said these temples are part of the state government’s special temple renovation and connectivity project Manaskhand Mandir Mala Mission for the Kumaon region of the state.

According to Raturi, the new train service will operate between Kolkata and the foothill of the Kumaon region Tanakpur.

He further said apart from train services, the state Tourism Department would operate and regulate special buses and other means of transport from Tanakpur to the Manaskhand series of temples for the convenience of the devotees and tourists coming from different parts of the country.

The Tourism Department will also extend hospitality in the form of guides and accommodations in government guest houses, homestays, and hotels on its own initiative. Guides are being trained under the Hunar Yojana (Skill Development Scheme) of the government.

What’s significant about the project is that the traditional annual Chardham pilgrimage of the Gangotri, Yamunotri, Badrinath, and Kedarnath shrines is a major source of tourism in the Garhwal region of Uttarakhand. Now, the Dhami government has prepared an action plan to renovate and develop 16 renowned temples including Purnagiri, Hatkalika, Patal Bhubaneswar, Jageshwardham, Golju Devta Temple, Nanda Devi and Kainchi Dham under its Manaskhand Mandir Mala Mission with the help of center. Raturi emphasised that the widening of roads connecting Manaskhand mission temples will be completed on a war footing before the start of the coming tourism season.

A few days ago, CM Dhami succeeded in getting his proposals for direct air and rail services from Dehradun to Ayodhya accepted by the Center.