New Delhi: President Ram Nath Kovind will embark on a special presidential train from Safdarjung railway station in Delhi to visit Kanpur on June 25. The train will stop at Jhinjhak and Rura, two places in Kanpur Dehat, where the President will interact with acquaintances from his school days and the early days of his social service.
Both these places are near the President’s birth place, Paraunkh village in Kanpur Dehat, where two programs are to be held in his honor on June 27. As he boards the train, the President will travel through his nostalgia, covering a lifetime of seven decades from his childhood to his rise to the country’s top constitutional office.
This is the first time that the President will visit his place of birth for the first time after assuming his current office. Although he had expressed his desire to visit here earlier also, but due to the epidemic, this plan could not be implemented.
Opting for the train option as a mode of travel follows the tradition of many presidents who traveled by train to connect with people from different parts of the country.
Thus, any current President will go on a train journey after a gap of 15 years. The last time a President traveled by train was in 2006, when Dr. APJ Abdul Kalam left for Dehradun from Delhi in a special train to attend the passing out parade of Indian Military Academy (IMA) cadets.
Records show that the country’s first President Dr. Rajendra Prasad had traveled by train several times. Soon after taking over as President, he visited Jiradei in Siwan district, his birth place, during his visit to Bihar. He reached Jiradei from Chhapra by the President’s special train, where he had spent three days. He traveled all over the country by train.
After Dr. Prasad, those who became the President had also given priority to train travel to connect with the people of the country.
On June 28, the President will leave by train from Kanpur Central station for his two-day visit to the state capital Lucknow. On June 29, he will return to New Delhi in a special aircraft.