Naveen wishes safe journey to senior citizen pilgrims at Sambalpur

Odisha Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik today flagged off the special pilgrimage train through video conferencing at the Secretariat here under the Baristha Nagarika Tirtha Yatra Yojana (BNTYY) programme of the State Government.

The train’s journey has been scheduled from Sambalpur railway station to Rameshwaram and Madurai in south India’s Tamil Nadu.

Briefing media soon after the flagging-off, Odisha Tourism Minister Ashok Chandra Panda said, “Naveen Babu’s Government had its election promise made in 2014 for starting the Baristha Nagarika Tirtha Yatra Yojana. This had been approved in the first Cabinet meeting then. Keeping that promise, it is being implemented since 2016 and including today’s it is the eighth pilgrimage train.”

“In the previous years, there were three such trains while from this year it will be six trains. Today’s train from Sambalpur station will go to Rameshwaram and Madurai. Similar train will be flagged off in January,” the Minister informed.

He also informed, “Today train has 970 pilgrims. This opportunity is meant for those senior citizens who hail from poor families.”