You may often have heard Prime Minister Narendra Modi wax eloquent on his childhood days as a chaiwala and of his memories of trains and railway stations – but now, you will actually be able to see these for yourself. All you need to do is book a tour package for Rs 600 a head.
Akshar Travels, an Ahmedabad-based tour operator is offering a package that will take one through all the important sites of Modi’s childhood – such as his native village and his primary school, Vadnagar Prathmik Kumar Shala in Vadnagar, in Mehsana district of Gujarat.
The tour package also covers PM Narendra Modi’s high school – and the tea stall at Vadnagar railway station where he had assisted his father Damodardas Mulchand Modi as a boy. The visitors will also get a chance to interact with Modi’s childhood friends.
Apart from a trip to the shrines of Modi’s childhood, the package also includes a visit to the Hatkeshwar Temple, a 17th century Sun temple, and other monuments nearby, in Vadnagar.
Aptly titled, ‘A rise from Modi’s village’, this tour was begun as a novel effort to offer guests something more than the usual, and has been well-received by guests. Akshar Travels is now planning to make it a daily affair – upgraded from once a week – starting May 1.
We were inspired by the fact that a tea seller can also become the Prime Minister of the world’s largest democracy. So we planned this package covering PM Modi’s village and nearby heritage sites. We launched this to offer a new package to the guests during Pravasi Bharatiya Divas. This has got a huge response.
– Manish Sharma, MD, Akshar Travels
The tour package was launched on January 5, 2015 on the eve of Pravasi Bharatiya Divas in Ahmedabad with just 28 guests. It now expects anything around 100 people per day this season.
The promotion and marketing of the tour programme is being helmed by Gujarat Tourism Corporation.
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