The Hindu : Tamil Nadu / Chennai News : IRCTC's budget-friendly package tours

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Wednesday, May 09, 2007
ePaper

Tamil Nadu

Tamil Nadu - Chennai

IRCTC's budget-friendly package tours

Staff Reporter

Booking counters set up in Chennai Central; guides to be provided

EASY ON THE POCKET: V. Sriram (left), regional director Indian Railway Catering and Tourism Corporation, flagging off the Chennai city tours on Monday at Central Railway station. — Photo: R. Shivaji Rao

Chennai: The Indian Railway Catering and Tourism Corporation (IRCTC) has introduced four city-based package tours for the benefit of tourists visiting places of interest in and around Chennai city and Kancheepuram.

Flagging off the first tourist van from Chennai Central on Monday, IRCTC regional director V. Sriram said the packages would be economical, meeting the demands of middle class people. This was the first time that such packages were launched by the Corporation in the country.

Tourists will be picked up and dropped at Chennai Central station. Booking counters have been set up at the Central station and advance bookings for the tours are open.

A guide would accompany the tourists to give a detailed description about the places being visited.

Depending on the response from the tourists, similar packages would be introduced in Madurai, Bangalore, Thiruvananthapuram and Ernakulam. Mr. Sriram said the Corporation was also operating package tours from Chennai to Udhagamandalam, including Mudumalai and Mettupalayam, and to Kodaikanal, including Munnar and Thekkady and Pollachi and Valparai. The IRCTC had tied-up with the Tamil Nadu Tourism Development Corporation for promoting rail-based tourism for passengers from the north visiting South India. Special tours would be organised linking Rameswaram and Kanyakumari on completion of broad gauge conversion up to Rameswaram, he added.

For package details and bookings, passengers may contact 6-A, The Rain Tree Place, 9, McNichols Road, Chetpet, Chennai - 31. Call 2836 3726 and fax 2836 3453.

Printer friendly page
Send this article to Friends by E-Mail

Tamil Nadu