Taking inspiration from Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s push to the North-East region, Delhi University is all set to flag off its Gyanodaya Express - taking close to 900 students and teachers to the N-E states on Thursday.

The trip, from December 18 to 29, aims to highlight the contribution of the North-East states in the national movement.

The trip will cover Arunachal Pradesh, Assam, Manipur, Meghalaya, Mizoram, Nagaland, Sikkim and Tripura.

The trip aims at highlighting the contribution of the N-E states in the national movement

“Students have been divided into groups of 10 each supervised by one mentor. Each group will also have a student from the North-East region to help the students familiarise with the area or language. Students will get to learn about the local culture and history,” Joint Dean of Welfare, Malay Neerav said.

The 14-coach train will have two classrooms in which students will be offered classes using a projector.

“The train will have two classrooms with all infrastructural facilities, including projectors and LCD screens. As many as 70 students will be given class at a time. There is a library and the train will be equipped with Internet facilities to aid students in studies,” Neerav said.

As preparation for the heritage tour, students were offered foundation courses in Nepali and Bengali. These languages are widely spoken in Sikkim and Tripura, respectively.

Started as the 'College- on-Wheels' project in 2012, Thursday’s event will be the fifth edition of Gyanodaya Express.

Students will get to meet representatives of local universities as well as senior functionaries of the North-East states.

Delhi University has also invited proposals from students about projects they would like to undertake on such a journey. A total of 65 projects, including those about the ‘sporting culture in North-East’ and about the ‘flaura and fauna of North-East’, will be undertaken.

Neerav said that the varsity is planning to publish a book by compiling all these projects.