Meeting the most popular demand of the people of Punjab to visit the holy and sacred religious sites, Punjab Government is all set to launch the Mukh Mantri Teerath Darshan Yatra (MMTDY) Scheme on January 1. The scheme aims at promoting and spreading the message of brotherhood, unity and national integration.Holy city of Amritsar is to be the venue of this historic event with all arrangements in place for the first specially chartered train to chug off for Sri Hazoor Sahib. The inaugural train carrying one thousand pilgrims will be flagged off by Mr. Sukhbir Singh Badal, Deputy Chief Minister Punjab from Amritsar Railway Station on January 1, 2016.
State Government is to run the special yatra trains to the sacred sites of a Nanded Sahib, Varanasi, Katra and Ajmer from all the 117 constituencies across the State to fulfill the aspirations of its people to visit these holy places in association with Indian Railways Catering Tourism Corporation Ltd.Though some other states are also providing similar facility but the unique feature of the scheme initiated by the Punjab Government is the large number of trains and larger number of destinations offered under the scheme. As of now, Punjab government is to run nearly 8 to 10 trains per month to 4 different destinations. “The volume of the trains and destinations makes it an unmatched the scheme; it makes it stand a class apart from all the ongoing schemes in the country.” While this scheme is applicable in other states to only senior citizens, Punjab has extended this benefit to all the residents of the state.The main attraction for the people is that Punjab Government is providing free boarding and lodging facility to all the pilgrims coupled with complimentary food and sight-seeing facility. Insurance cover is also extended to all the pilgrims.
The scheme will cost the Punjab government nearly Rs.187 crore per annum.In order to implement the scheme smoothly various committees namely Executive Committee at Government level and State level implementation committee and also District Level Implementation committees have been formed. The district level committees have been authorized to make selection of the beneficiaries.District Level Nodal Officer would accompany the yatris during the journey and in the inaugural train senior officers from tourism and transport department Punjab will travel along with the yatris to oversee all the arrangements as well as the comfort of the pilgrims.In a bid to meet the demand for additional destinations, under the Mukh Mantri Teerath Darshan Yatra Scheme free buses will also ply for Salasar(Rajasthan) and Chintpurni(Himachal Pradesh) with effect from January 4, 2016.