New Delhi: Indian Railways’ ticketing arm, Indian Railway Catering and Tourism Corporation Limited (IRCTC) will run special trains to pay tribute to Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel on his 143rd birth anniversary. IRCTC will flag off ‘Unity Express’ on 31st October from Rajkot on the inaugural occasion of statue of Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel (Statue of Unity).
The special train will run for 12 days with boarding points at Rajkot, Surendra Nagar, Viramgam, Sabarmati, Anand, Vadodara, Bharuch, Surat, Vapi, Kalyan and Pune. As per the IRCTC website, total 804 sleeper class berths and 62 3rd AC berths are available for booking. Interested passengers can book their tickets online
A tribute to Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel, Indian Railways will run the Unity Express, a 12-day special train on 31st October that will cover key pilgrim sites. Passengers can book online at (link: https://t.co/6nllQBF3bM) https://t.co/SJ3RCDvf1k
— Ministry of Railways (@RailMinIndia) October 30, 2018
The train will cover destinations including Rameshwaram, Madurai, Kanyakumari, Kochuveli, Trivandrum, Tirupati, Shirdi and Shani Shingnapur.
On the inauguration of World's Tallest Statue #StatueOfUnity, IRCTC is operating a special Tourist Train #UnityExpress from Rajkot to #Rameshwaram - #Madurai - #Kannyakumari - #Kochuveli - #Trivendrum - #Tirupati - #Shirdi - #ShaniSignapur. To book visit https://t.co/8AU96ljK4G pic.twitter.com/ttAUaFMk7x
— IRCTC (@IRCTCofficial) October 29, 2018
The world’s tallest statue, which is double the size of the Statue of Liberty, will be inaugurated on 31 October 2018 by Prime Minister Narendra Modi on the birth anniversary of Sardar Patel. The ‘Statue of Unity’ has been built to pay high tribute to the freedom fighter, Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel.
The statue of Unity has two high-speed passenger elevators in its core which will take tourists up to the chest of the statue to a viewing gallery, which can accommodate about 200 tourists at a time. The 182-metre statue took 33 months to complete at a cost of Rs 2,989 crore.
PM Modi has said that the statue will attract “hordes” of tourists, just as the Statue of Liberty does for New York. According to the Gujarat government, it will bring 15,000 tourists a day.
