Bengaluru: Channapatna, around 60 kms from Bengaluru is a renowned city when it comes to toymaking. 

It has made international headlines for its prowess. 

Now, with an intention to give it more popularity, the Railways has come up with a new plan. 

It has opened a display-cum-promotion centre for indigenous toys at the Channapatna station. 

“This initiative will be taken up at a much bigger level at Yeshwantpur station in collaboration with the government. It is part of the railways’ efforts to showcase indigenous toys at stations to promote Atmanirbhar Bharat. We had distributed over 40,000 Channapatna toys to kids returning home on Shramik Special trains [during the lockdown months],” Bengaluru divisional railway manager Ashok Kumar Verma was quoted by Times of India. 

The railways is doing all it can to promote toys. 

The South Western Railway (SWR), under the initiative “Put the smile back”, had distributed iconic Channapatna toys to children boarding the ‘Shramik Special’ trains from Karnataka.

South Western Railway (SWR) in May 19 had said the Geographical Indication (GI) tagged Channapatna toys were handed over to kids travelling on ‘Shramik Special’ trains.

“Under the initiatives of "put the smile back" #Channapatana toys distributed to children boarding #ShramikSpecialTrains sponsored by M/S @concor_india #India #IndianRailways #Karnataka #Mysuru #FightAgainstCorona #Mysuru #Bengaluru #StayHomeStaySafe #IndiaFightsCoronavirus (sic),” SWR had tweeted.

In another tweet, SWR said this initiative is also part of Prime Minister Narendra Modi's "Vocal for Local" to help local artisans.

"This is a initiative both to make those children happy and give opportunity to local artisans to promote their art. The latter is under the Hon'ble PMs initiative of "Vocal for Local"#India #IndiaFightsCoronavirus#IndianRailways #Karnataka #Bengaluru (sic)," SWR said.

The move will also go a long way in spreading Atmanirbhar Bharat which is a flagship programme by PM Modi envisioning a self-reliant India.