Airlines hike airfare from Delhi, Mumbai, and Kolkata to Patna ahead of the festive season

It is the festive season and airlines have hiked the airfares from Delhi, Mumbai, and Kolkata to Patna. The rise is, in some cases is in excess of more than three-fold over the off-peak season rates. The price of air tickets for flights from Delhi to Patna and from Mumbai to Patna were more than the rate from Delhi to Sharjah or from Delhi to Singapore or Delhi to Bangkok. These are for destinations in other countries. Obviously, airline companies were taking advantage of the flexible fare during the peak season. In the opinion of experts, the spike might continue. This is not only for Delhi but also for other cities like Hyderabad, Chennai, Bengaluru, Chandigarh, Jaipur, Ahmedabad, and Surat. It is obvious that people can afford to pay these exorbitant rates and no one is gumbling. Airfare from Delhi, Mumbai to Patna rises upto three fold amid Diwali, Chhath.

One of the biggest reasons for the spikes in airfare could possibly be the non-availability of train tickets. The waiting lists for trains are very high and even Tatkal tickets are not available. Hence, the railways plan to start additional mail and express trains bound for destinations in Bihar. These could include Patna, Muzaffarpur, Darbhanga, Jay Nagar, Kishanganj, Katihar, and Barauni (Begusarai). Moreover, Northern Railway has decided to run 32 additional mail and express trains bound to provide some relief to the passengers. According to the officials, there will be 211 trains until Chatth Puja. These will originate from Jammu, Amritsar, Ferozepur, Delhi, Bhiwani, and Pathankot. The authorities want the people to come home to enjoy the festive season with their near and dear ones.

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Kite enthusiasts fly kites in Patna to celebrate Makar Sankranti

It is Makar Sankranti and, on this occasion, kite enthusiasts from Patna assembled at the 62-acre venue of Gandhi Maidan for the festival. There were many middle-aged men, full of enthusiasm, who flew the kites while their families turned into supporters and spectators. Many of them had arrived in their cars, loaded with kites, manjha or thread sharpened with a concoction of powdered glass mixed in glue.
This has been reported in telegraphindia.com dated 15 January 2016.

The organizers had invited a team of three expert kite-fliers from Gujarat in order to introduce newbies to the colorful world of kites. Accordingly, the Vibrant Kite Club from Ahmadabad had brought with them 23 kites - right from plain ones to inflatable ones - of made of synthetic cloth.
The biggest one was designed as a komodo dragon and it was nearly 60ft long. Others were in shapes of the cobra, fish, Sponge Bob, tiger and other animals. Principles of aerodynamics are employed while making these kites and their costs span from a few thousand rupees to Rs 2 lakh.
Makar Sankranti is a big festival of Gijaratis but, the Gujarati team did not exhibit their costlier kites because the local fliers constantly maneuvered their kites to attack and cut them.

(Image courtesy wikimediacommons.org

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Patna organises Bihar Country Food Fest from January 13 to 19

Patna is organizing the Bihar Country Food Fest from January 13 to 19 at Gandhi Maidan and vendors would arrive from different states like Maharashtra, Rajasthan, Delhi, Gujarat and Bengal - they will put up their stalls and visitors can gorge on a variety of street foods.
This has been reported in telegraphindia.com dated 9 January 2016.

The fest would be organized by Dropouts Communications and would be open from 11am to 9pm. Adults will be charged Rs 25 as entry fee, while children between the age group of five to 13 years will have to pay Rs 10. There is no entry fee for infants.
An added attraction of this event is that chefs would teach residents how to prepare various dishes.
It is understood that there would be around 50 street vendors and 25 two-and-three star hotels participating and there would be separate counters for vendors and hotels.
There would be chamchams, sandesh, mishti doi and more at the Bengali stall. Or - one can go in for fafda, thepla and dhokla at the Gujarati counter. Or - dal-bati churma, kadhi and more at the Rajasthani thali while Delhi stalls would beckon with their chhola bhaturas and rajma-chawals apart from Hyderabadi biryani at the Hyderabadi stall.

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Namami Gange to take off from next month with surface cleaning of 10 cities

#Namamigange #umabharati #Haridwar #varanasi The Namami Gange is to take off in real earnest from next month with surface cleaning of 10 cities - the initial task would be to begin surface cleaning of the River Ganga by removal of solid waste like clothes and parts of dead bodies. AS indicated by water resources minister Uma Bharati, the cities identified are Haridwar, Garhmukteshwar, Kanpur, Allahabad, Varanasi, Patna, Sahibganj, Kolkata, Nabadwip and Gangasagar.
This has been reported in timesofindia.indiatimes.com dated 24 December 2015.

As revealed by the minister, trial of surface cleaning has already been taken up in Varanasi by Tata Projects Ltd under corporate social responsibility scheme. NTPC, ONGC and Petronet have also expressed willingness to fund the project.
Regarding progress of sewage treatment under Namami Gange, the minister has informed that 29 projects have been completed at a cost of Rs 463.58 crore with the treatment capacity of 123 million litres per day (MLD) and sewer network of 666.69 km. A total of 93 projects have been sanctioned at the cost of Rs 1,502.66 crore. Once complete, it will result in the creation of treatment capacity of 858 MLD and sewer network of 3,623.10 km.
On the subject of progress in river front/ghat development projects, it seems development of four ghats out of 20 in Patna was completed last month and work at Chandighat (Haridwar), Chhath Ghat (Delhi) and Sahibganj will start next month.

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