The Climate Action Special train is a redesigned edition of the Science Express that has been travelling across India and was flagged off in 2007 first.
Flagged off earlier this month, the 'Climate Action Special' Science Express is already a hit. Hundreds have visited the train over the last two weeks to see elaborate exhibits that educate and prompt action on board the train.
For the next seven months, the train will travel 18,000 kilometres docking at 20 cities across India, beginning with capital New Delhi and ending its journey in Gujarat's Gandhinagar.
With the Paris climate summit just around the corner, the Environment Ministry hopes the train will increase the awareness among people.
Thirty-five science graduates will be on board as volunteers to explain climate change and the exhibits in 11 different languages to the visitors.
Three of the 16 coaches on the train, which also has a science lab for children, are solar-powered. Eventually the government hopes to create an all-solar powered train.
With a budget of Rs 15.5 crores for its maintenance and travel expenditure, the train showcases exhibits designed by the Department of Science and Technology, Centre for Environment Education, Department of Biotechnology and Vikram A Sarabhai Community Science Centre.
The train is a redesigned edition of the Science Express that has been travelling across India and was flagged off in 2007 first.
The exhibition train has since covered over one lakh kilometres across the country, hosting more than one crore visitors with 335 halts spread over more than 1,200 exhibition days.
The last redesign of the train was in 2012, when it was designed on the theme of Biodiversity and since then it was running as the 'Science Express Biodiversity Special'.