According to a report in The Hindu on Jul 16, The Commerce Ministry of India wants the Railways Ministry to consider running a luxury train, modelled on the ‘Palace on Wheels,’ on the ‘Buddhist Circuit.’

The aim is to attract “big-spending tourists” from countries such as China and Japan where Buddhism has several followers, especially from the rapidly growing overseas travel market of Chinese citizens”, official sources told The Hindu. Indian Railway Catering and Tourism Corporation (IRCTC), a subsidiary of Indian Railways had in March 2007 introduced the “Indian Buddhist Circuit Train”. But Chinese and Japanese complained about “poor” infrastructure including Wi-Fi and broadband connectivity, absence of sufficient luxury hotels, poor connectivity to airports, lack of cleanliness in the Buddhist Circuit train and railway platforms, lack of access to warm water, not getting food of their choice and platforms not having luxury lounges, etc. Indian side thinks these drawbacks have discouraged people from repeat visits. So The Commerce Ministry had asked IRCTC to look at joint ventures with China or Japan to open up a luxury train on the “Buddhist Circuit”.

The Hindu says, a study by a subsidiary organization of United Nations showed that there are around 500 million Buddhists worldwide, and Buddhists traveling to India from foreign countries comprised a mere 0.005 per cent of all Buddhist adherents. India’s efforts are far from enough in attracting the Buddhist travellers. India is the birthplace of Buddhism, and the potential for Buddhist tourism expansion is enormous. (Xu Zhenzhen)

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