Bhubaneswar, June 3: Odisha tourism is hoping to host trains from famous Buddhist circuits from central India with a tie-up with the Indian Railways Catering and Tourism Corporation.

The top tourism officials said trains carrying special-interest tourists would arrive in the state this December exploring the sites such as Lalitgiri, Udaygiri, Ratnagiri and Langudi. The 40km radius stretch of basin near the Birupa and the Brahmani rivers is unique in a way that no such Buddhist sites are seen with a cluster of mega Buddhist monuments as seen in Odisha.

Principal secretary of the tourism and culture Ashok Kumar Tripathy says the state government has initiated talks with railways authorities and the ministry of tourism. The Mahaparinirvan Express might connect to the Buddhist destinations in Odisha.

“As Haridaspur Junction can become the major gateway to the Buddhist sites near the Birupa-Brahmani valley, the place will be promoted as an ideal point to take tourists to the nearby sites. They can also go to other Buddhist sites such as Dhauli and Kuruma near Sun temple in Konark. Kuruma is 6km from Konark and famous for Buddhist ruins of 7th and 8th century. There is also a small place called Tarapur, where many Buddhist sculptures were found,” Tripathy said.

Secretary of the Odishan Institute of Maritime and Southeast Asian Studies Sunil Kumar Patnaik said that no one could compare one Buddhist site with the other. “But, Odisha was having one of the most significant and largest Buddhist clusters in a single river valley where within a 40km radius we can find four major sites similar to Nalanda,” he said.

Debasish Mohapatra, chief operating officer of K7 Holidays, feels that though late, the initiatives taken by the state government and especially the chief minister’s move to call on the Union tourism minister to develop connectivity to the Buddhist sites is a welcome step.

“Earlier on many occasions, we have urged the authorities to put more emphasis on the Buddhist circuits. The special train starts from New Delhi’s Safdarjang station and passes through Bodhgaya, Rajgir, Nalanda, Varanasi, Sarnath, Kushinagar, Lumbini, Sravasti and Taj Mahal in Agra. The tariff ranges from $735 to $1,148, but if we can include Odisha’s Buddhist circuits, a foreign tourist has to spend another $200 or much less. With the Buddhist sites we may add Konark temple as it has actually become the symbol of Odishan tourism promotion,” he said.

However, seeing the Maoist problems in the tribal belts and places, where the eco-tourism is a famous concept, travel advisors feel that the emphasis on the Buddhist circuits will provide more foreign earnings with the special interest groups coming from the southeast Asian nations and especially countries such as Japan, Korea and Thailand.

With development of a theme park near the International Peace Pagoda near Dhauli by the Odisha tourism department with an investment of around Rs 4 crore, the traditional image of Dhauli will definitely pass through an image makeover.

“We need to market the Buddhist circuits and sites more aggressively, so that the southeast Asian travellers will come in huge numbers as Odisha will be affordable and the best religious destination as the real propagation of the religion actually started from the land,” said a travel agency operator.