Ahmedabad, Sep 24 (IANS) The seven-coach Red Ribbon Express is all set to arrive in the city’s railway station Thursday to showcase an exhibition on HIV and AIDS. The train will remain at the Ahmedabad railway station for the next two days.The first three coaches of Red Ribbon Express will be exhibition coaches showcasing different aspects of AIDS while the other four coaches would have an auditorium for interaction with select and “high risk” target groups, Ahmedabad Municipal Corporation (AMC) Commissioner I.P. Gautam told reporters here.

He said a caravan of buses and cycles would also arrive in the state capital on Sep 25 morning with the train, which will be received by city Mayor Kanaji Thakore.

Flagged off by Sonia Gandhi on Dec 1, 2007 in New Delhi, the Red Ribbon Express is set to complete its 9,000 km-long journey covering 1,801 districts and 50,000 villages across India by Dec 1, 2008.

Taking awareness on HIV/AIDS deeper and wider across Gujarat, the train came to the state on Sep 11 and halted at Surat (Sep 14-16) and Vadodara (Sep 17-19) and is now slated to be at Ahmedabad on Sep 25 and 26. The train is expected to be in Gujarat for 31 days until Oct 16.

Gautam said AMC’s campaign with several NGOs is also proving fruitful in tackling the dreaded HIV/AIDS menace in the city. “The prevalence of HIV cases is under firm control and Ahmedabad is only in B category,” he said.

He said the cases had gone down over the years due to increased awareness and a rise in number of people turning up for HIV tests in the past five years.

Worldwide HIV cases total 33.2 million. Of these, Gujarat accounts for 1,312 AIDS cases, he said. In India, an estimated 2.5 million people, aged between 15 and 49, are feared to be living with HIV/AIDS, the third largest number in the world.