One train in the front, one in the rear, here comes the President’s special

On Tuesday, President Droupadi Murmu, who arrived in native Odisha for a three-day visit yesterday, travelled from Bhubaneswar to Berhampur, a distance of 170 km, by a ‘President’s Special’, after a rain forecast meant plans to fly had to be ditched. This involved an ultra-luxury private rail car, with air-conditioned bedrooms, a living-cum-dining room, and a kitchen, said East Coast Railway (ECoR) officials.

The President cannot travel without an escort, and so there was a train in the front and another in the rear as her special chugged to its destination. No other train was allowed on the track during the time she travelled.

Murmu’s co-passengers on the 9 am to 11 am ride included Chief Minister Mohan Charan Manjhi and Governor Hari Babu Kambhampati.

An ECoR spokesperson said the Railways made the preparations, including rolling out a red carpet literally – starting from the platform, and going up a ramp, onto the coach – after the President’s Secretariat contacted them.

If the Railways took care of the train part, the administration managed the security detail, including the deployment of bomb disposal squads, sniffer dogs and intensive baggage screening at the Bhubaneswar and Berhampur railway stations, an official said. Apart from Government Railway Police and Railway Protection Force personnel, commandos of Central agencies travelled on the train.

At the starting terminal in Bhubaneswar, and the train’s final halt in Berhampur, around 15 platoons (comprising 450 personnel) each of police personnel were deployed. Ganjam Collector V Keerthi Vasan said the venues of the President’s visit in the district have been declared “no-flying” zones.

In Berhampur, Murmu will visit the Maa Kandhuni Devi shrine near Taptapani to offer prayers. Taptapani, located among lush forests, is a popular tourist destination for its natural hot springs.

The last time Murmu took the train as President was also a two-hour trip to another religious destination. She boarded the Maharaja Express and travelled from Delhi to Vrindavan to visit the Banke Bihari Temple in September 2025. For that journey, 12 coaches out of 18 of the luxury Maharaja Express were marked out for the President and her staff, and featured a Presidential Suite, deluxe cabins, dining cars, and a lounge.

In the evening, she took the train back to Delhi from Mathura.

The sweetest ride for Murmu, however, would have been the one in her home district, Mayurbhanj. On November 21, 2023, the President flagged off three new trains from Badampahar Railway Station in Mayurbhanj, taking the inaugural ride on the Badampahar-Shalimar Express and getting off at Rairangpur, close to her birthplace Uperbeda.

The track on which Murmu travelled in Odisha Tuesday includes, incidentally, a 100-km stretch that is among Odisha’s oldest, opened on March 1, 1896, during the British era. It crosses the Chilka lake, and it was while traversing it, as he was being transported to a prison by the British authorities, that one of Odisha’s foremost poets and social activists, Utkalmani Gopabandhu Das, wrote a poem on the beautiful journey

Come Wednesday, the President cavalcade will make the same journey in reverse.