Baristha Nagarika Tirtha Yatra Yojana (BNTYY)

What is Baristha Nagarika Tirtha Yatra Yojana?

Baristha Nagarika Tirtha Yatra Yojana (BNTYY) is a state-funded pilgrimage scheme of the Department of Tourism, Government of Odisha. It was launched by Tourism Department notification No. 2583/TSM dated 1 February 2016 and is operated in collaboration with the Indian Railway Catering and Tourism Corporation (IRCTC). The scheme is currently governed by the Baristha Nagarika Tirtha Yatra Yojana Revised Operational Guidelines, 2018, notified on 10 July 2018, which superseded the earlier 2016 operational guideline.

According to the Tourism Department guidelines, the scheme "offers a great opportunity to the poor and deprived senior Citizens of the State for realization of their lifelong dream of having one Tirtha Darshan" and is open to people of all regions and faiths. The Odia name is often written as Barishtha Nagarika Tirtha Jatra Yojana, and it is sometimes described simply as the senior citizen free pilgrimage scheme of Odisha.

Pilgrims travel on a chartered train booked on Full Tariff Rate basis. Each train accommodates a maximum of 1,000 passengers. At least 30 seats are reserved for escort officers and medical officers accompanying the group, and the remaining 970 seats are allotted to districts as quotas fixed by the Tourism Department. Tour destinations are decided by the Tourism Department in consultation with IRCTC and change from round to round; the train starts from a designated starting point with up to two en-route boarding stations.

What does a BNTYY pilgrim get?

The selected senior citizen pays nothing. The package is described in the 2018 guidelines and covers:

• Transport to the train. District administration arranges transport from home or the district headquarters to the starting railway station, and back home on return.
• Stay and food before departure. The Collector of the starting-point district arranges accommodation and food on the day before departure.
• Sleeper class journey on a chartered train.
• Night accommodation at destinations on a multi-sharing basis.
• Vegetarian meals throughout: breakfast between 8 and 9 AM (upma and dalma, or puri with mixed vegetable curry, or idli and sambar, with tea and water), lunch between 12 noon and 2 PM (rice or roti, dal, a curry, a vegetable fry, khata and water), tea and biscuits between 4 and 5 PM, and dinner between 7 and 9 PM.
• Road transport and sightseeing by non-AC buses at the destinations.
• Tour managers, escorts and guides, plus a public address system and daily attendance so that nobody is left behind.
• Travel insurance and medical facilities with professional physicians.
• A travel kit, supplied by IRCTC on boarding and branded with the Odisha Tourism logo, containing a tooth brush, tooth paste, coconut oil, shampoo, bathing and washing soap, bed sheet, blanket, cap, towel, hand napkin, comb, mirror, identity card and a bag.
• A separate identity card with name, address and contact number, carrying a flag so a pilgrim can be found in a crowd.

Not covered: tickets for light and sound shows, digital video camera charges, boating, ropeway charges and similar optional activities at sightseeing places. Pilgrims pay for those themselves if they wish to use them.

Who is eligible for Baristha Nagarika Tirtha Yatra Yojana?

You can be selected if:

• You are over 60 and within 75 years of age, computed as on the last date for submission of applications.
• You are a domicile of Odisha.
• You have the requisite fitness to undertake the journey and are not suffering from any communicable disease.
• You mandatorily hold at least one of these documents showing weak economic status, an Antyodaya or Annapurna card, a ration card under the National Food Security Act, a widow pension or old age pension record, or an MGNREGS job card. Other State Government documents reflecting deprivation, including the Panchayati Raj Department's auto-inclusion and deprivation criteria that replaced BPL identification, are also accepted.

Special cases the guidelines allow

• A married couple can apply jointly. The joint application is counted as one application, but the facilities are provided individually, and the application stays eligible even if one spouse is younger than 60.
• An applicant above 70 years may take one attendant. The attendant applies jointly with the pilgrim, must be over 18, and must pay 50 per cent of the travel cost by demand draft on a scheduled bank in favour of the Director, Tourism, payable at Bhubaneswar, submitted with the application.

You cannot apply if:

• You are below 60 or above 75 years, except as the younger spouse in a joint application by a married couple.
• You are not a domicile of Odisha.
• You cannot produce any of the listed documents showing weak economic status. The scheme is explicitly meant for the poor and deprived sections, so a well-off senior citizen is not eligible.
• You are medically unfit or suffering from a communicable disease.
• You have already travelled once under BNTYY. The benefit is once in a lifetime and District Tourist Officers keep a database to enforce it.
• You give false information. The guidelines say such an applicant is debarred from the benefit.

How to apply for Baristha Nagarika Tirtha Yatra Yojana

Applications are invited round by round through advertisements in Odia and English dailies, and District Collectors publish copies at district offices, blocks, tahasils and Gram Panchayat offices. Both an online and an offline route exist.

1. Watch for the advertisement and note the window. For the BNTYY 2026-27 round the online portal shows applications opening on 15 July 2026 and closing on 15 August 2026. Age is computed as on the last date of submission, so check your age against that date.
2. Choose your route. To apply online, go to yatra.odisha.gov.in, select the travel scheme "BNTYY 2026-27" and proceed. To apply offline, collect the prescribed proforma — Annexure I in English or Annexure II in Odia: from the District Collectorate, District Tourist Office, Block, Tahasil or Gram Panchayat office, or download it from the Tourism Department website.
3. Fill the form completely. Enter your emergency contact details (name, address, telephone, mobile and email of a relative), your blood group, and use the joint-application proforma if you are applying as a couple or with an attendant.
4. Attach every document. Affix proof of identity, age and address, the document showing weak economic status, the undertaking on medical fitness and two passport size photographs. If an attendant is applying with you, attach the 50 per cent bank draft.
5. Submit before the deadline. Offline applications go to the office of the District Collector or the District Tourist Officer of your district, or another authority designated by the Collector, either by hand or by post. Incomplete applications, applications received after the deadline, and applications missing documents or the bank draft are summarily rejected.
6. Await registration and scrutiny. Each application is given a district-wise code and registration number at the District Tourist Office. A joint application by a couple, or by a pilgrim above 70 with an attendant, gets a single registration number. A special BNTYY cell in the Collector's office scrutinises the applications.
7. Selection by lottery if needed. If applicants exceed the district quota, the District Level Selection Committee chaired by the Collector selects pilgrims by drawal of lots or by an electronic random number generator, plus 20 per cent extra as a waiting list. The selected list is published at the district headquarters, the Tourist Office and block offices.

How do I check my BNTYY application status?

The District Tourist Officer is the nodal officer for BNTYY in each district and is the person to contact. On receipt of the final selection list, the Tourist Officer coordinates intimation to selected, wait-listed and non-selected applicants, and the selected list is also published at the district headquarters, the District Tourist Office and block offices.

For scheme queries, the online portal publishes helpline numbers 9668662978 and 6371298317. For problems with the online application itself, the portal lists 7381028793, available from 10 AM to 6 PM.

Bank drafts matter here too. The Tourist Officer forwards the drafts of selected pilgrims to the Tourism Department for deposit in the government exchequer, and returns the drafts of applicants who are not selected. If your attendant's draft has not come back after a round closes, that is the office to ask.

Common reasons a BNTYY application fails

• Incomplete form or missing enclosures. The guidelines direct that incomplete applications and those without required information, documents or the bank draft be summarily rejected, with no opportunity to cure.
• Received after the last date. Late applications are rejected outright.
• No economic-status document. Possession of at least one of the listed documents is mandatory, not optional.
• Age falls outside 60 to 75 on the cut-off date. Age is computed on the last date of submission, not the date you filled the form.
• Already travelled once. The District Tourist Officer's database of past pilgrims screens out repeat applicants.
• Not selected in the lottery. This is not a rejection on merit; where applications exceed the district quota, selection is by random draw and unsuccessful applicants can apply again in a later round.

What are the pilgrim's own responsibilities?

The 2018 guidelines set out clear conditions for selected pilgrims. As far as possible, avoid wearing jewellery. Give an undertaking that you are fit to travel and free of communicable disease, and a second undertaking that you are travelling of your own will and at your own risk, since the State Government is not responsible for any untoward incident during the pilgrimage. Do not deviate from the scheduled programme or site visits, follow the instructions of IRCTC officials throughout, and maintain good conduct with fellow pilgrims and staff.

If you are selected but cannot travel, inform the District Collector, Tourist Officer or the Tourism Department at least seven days before departure. Do that and you can be considered for the next journey. Fail to do it and you are debarred from subsequent journeys, and any journey cost deposited is forfeited.

Key dates, monitoring and grievance route

The scheme dates from the notification of 1 February 2016; the operative rules are the revised operational guidelines of 10 July 2018. Application windows are announced round by round. The 2026-27 window on yatra.odisha.gov.in runs from 15 July 2026 to 15 August 2026.

Monitoring runs at three levels. A State Level Committee chaired by the Minister of Tourism, with the Development Commissioner-cum-Additional Chief Secretary, secretaries of Tourism, Culture, Home, Health and Panchayati Raj, the DG Police, Revenue Divisional Commissioners and the MD of OTDC, supervises the scheme, with the Director of Tourism as member convenor. A District Level Coordination Committee chaired by the Collector, with the ADM, SP, PD DRDA, Sub-Collectors, CDMO, DWO, DSWO and district Culture and Sports Officers, scrutinises and recommends names, with the District Tourist Officer as member convenor. A BNTYY Monitoring Cell at the Tourism Department, constituted by notification dated 1 February 2016, tracks implementation.

For grievances, start with the District Tourist Officer, then the District Collector. The department can be reached at Department of Tourism, Paryatan Bhawan, Museum Campus, Lewis Road, Bhubaneswar 751014, telephone (0674) 2432177 or 2431896, email info@odishatourism.gov.in. The Odisha government's Jana Sunani portal is available for written escalation.