Tag: gaya

Creating awareness! Waste is all that it takes to study in this school in Gaya

Source: timesnownews.com

Gaya: The students of Padampani School in Sevabigha village here collect waste materials on their way to school as their school fee. This step has been taken by the school authorities to create awareness among the children about the importance of protecting nature.

Deepak Kumar, Vice Principal of the School, told ANI: “We started this school in 2014 and now we have around 250 students here. We impart free education and provide free uniform, books, mid-day meal to the students. Instead of fees, they are supposed to collect waste materials on their way to school and dispose it off in the dustbin kept outside the school.”

“We send all the waste materials for recycling. Our main focus is to instil awareness among the children to create a clean and green environment. With the help of students, we are taking care of more than 200 trees on the school premises.”

Manoj Samdarshi, the founder of Padampani School, said: “We are running this school on donation as most of the students belong to very poor families. However, we provide socio-cultural classes, along with other activities like sports. The school aims to keep areas around the world heritage site of the Mahabodhi temple clean and waste-free.”

Echoing the importance of protecting nature, a student said: “We collect waste as fees which are later sent for recycling. Along with good education, we are also taught to value the importance of nature. This helps us keep our area clean.” 

MORE FLOODING RAINS TO LASH ARARIA, KISHANGANJ, BHAGALPUR, BEGUSARAI, SIWAN AND GAYA

Source: skymetweather.com

Moderate to heavy rains with one or two very heavy spells of Monsoon rains have been lashing the state of Bihar since the last two to three days. These rains have triggered some intense flooding in many districts of the state. The adjoining parts of Nepal too have been reeling under flooding rains for the last many days now. Also, these have resulted in swelling of many rivers.

Places right from Pashchim Champaran to Sitamarhi, including Araria, Kishanganj, Arwal, Aurangabad, Banka, Begusarai, Bhagalpur, Bhojpur, Buxar, Darbhanga, Gaya, Gopalganj, Jamui, Jehanabad, Kaimur (Bhabua), Katihar, Khagaria, and Siwan are experiencing flooding rains at present. Moreover, no relief is expected from such conditions for at least next two to three days. In fact, flooding may worsen in some areas due to continuous heavy downpour.

For the next 48 hours, we expect moderate to heavy with a few very heavy spells of rain and thundershower activities in many parts of Bihar. Thereafter, rains will slightly taper over the region. This is because, the present Trough will start shifting south, thus initiating good rains over the southern districts of Bihar. By this time, rains will reduce in other districts of the state, thus leading to a marginal relief from the flood-like situation.

Skymet has been continuously tracking the weather activities going on over and across the state and thus has been giving weather alerts on a constant basis in order to help the residents, escape this danger. And as more heavy rains are expected to lash the state, localitesare advised to take due precautions.

HEAVY MONSOON RAINS TO LASH PARTS OF PATNA, GAYA, PURNIA AND BEGUSARAI IN THE NEXT 24 HOURS

Source: skymetweather.com

Though the Monsoon has arrived long back over Bihar and Jharkhand, due to the absence of any significant weather systems, Monsoon remained deficit over these states. Only scattered rains were observed over a few places.

At present, a Cyclonic Circulation is lying over southeast Uttar Pradesh and adjoining Madhya Pradesh. Also, a trough is extending from Northwest India to Northwest Bay of Bengal across Uttar Pradesh and Jharkhand.

These two systems will act as a catalyst and enhance the rainfall activities over Bihar and Jharkhand. We expect moderate rains over most of the places with few heavy spells during the next 24 hours. As a Trough is likely to shift further North, rainfall activity would cover most parts of Bihar and then the heavy rains might intensify. As per our experts, these heavy rains would continue over Bihar till July 11. Jharkhand too would receive moderate to heavy rains during the next three to four days. Thereafter, rainfall will decrease over the southern part but light to moderate rains will continue. Places like Supaul, Purnia, Araria, Patna, Gaya, Katihar, Aurangabad, Rohtas, Bhojpur, Begusarai, Munger, Nalanda, Buxar, etc are likely to be impacted by heavy to very heavy Monsoon rains in the next 24 hours.

This will be the first long spell after the initiation of Monsoon and the rains are likely to pay visit most parts of the states. Till date, for the Monsoon season, Bihar is rain deficit by 49% while Jharkhand is deficit by 44%. There are chances that with these hefty rains, deficiency levels might get recovered with a good percentage.

AES lens on Gaya now as 3 kids die

Source: hindustantimes.com

Acute Encephalitis Syndrome (AES), the mystery disease that has claimed lives of 156 children across Bihar so far, has claimed four more lives during the last 24 hours, taking the toll to 160, health officials said.

While one child died at the Muzaffarpur’s Sri Krishna Medical College Hospital (SKMCH), the rest three succumbed to their ailment at Gaya’s Anugrah Narayan Magadh Medical College and Hospital (ANMCH).

Spread of AES from the state’s north to south is a matter of serious concern for the health department, which is already under fire for failing to contain AES deaths as the disease has been recurring every year during the extreme summer and causing much devastation.

Chief minister Nitish Kumar, while expressing serious concern over the death in the state assembly two days back, had said that experts from across India and even US had come up conflicting and incomplete findings on causes that lead to AES among children in Bihar.

ANMCH officials said at least six children were brought to the hospital, of which four showed AES symptoms while two were brought dead in the last 24 hours. The deceased, who were referred by primary health centres, were being treated for AES, official said.

Another one died on way to Patna.

Officials said that rest three patients of suspected AES are still undergoing treatment at the ANMCH and their conditions are said to be stable.

ANMCH superintendent Dr Vijay Krishna Prasad said blood samples of all the patients had been sent to the Rajendra Medical Research Institute in Patna for laboratory tests to ascertain the type of the disease. “At present, we have identified symptoms of Japanese encephalitis and AES, but the same can be confirmed only after the RMRI tests. We can just call it suspected encephalitis cases,” the ANMCH superintendent said.

He, however, said that the medical college is well equipped to counter the menace. “We have already created 30-bed ICU attached to the paediatric ward for AES patients. Besides, we have adequate medicines and experts to handle such cases,” the superintendent said.

Since JES generally strikes in a big way after the first showers across the Magadh division, the health department had earlier chalked out strategy to combat the situation. “There would no Muzaffarpur-like situation here as we are on high alert and patients are being promptly attended upon,” a health department official said.

“The Bihar government has announced Rs 50,000 compensation to the families that have lost their kids to AES. We are now preparing the patients’ records,” the superintendent said.

Meanwhile in Muzaffarpur, the epicentre of the disease, 24 AES afflicted children are currently undergoing treatment at the SKMCH while one is being treated at the Kejriwal Maternity Clinic.

Brick kilns ruin 6,000 acres of land in Bihar every year: Study

Source: hindustantimes.com

Red brick kilns in Bihar destroy about 6,000 acres of land every year, according to the results of a study released recently. This is a big and alarming number for a state whose economy is largely based on agriculture, and where environment management has become of paramount importance in the face of a large-scale water crisis.

The study was conducted by Development Alternatives (DA), a research institution working for sustainable development. Quoting 2017 data from the mines and geology department, DA said that there were 6,364 registered brick kiln units in Bihar that produced 19,000 million red bricks and consumed around 53 million tonnes of soil. The total geographical area of the state is 94,163 square km.

In 2018, as per data from the mines and geology department, the number of brick kiln units was 6,291 (73 less than in 2017). Of all the districts, Gaya has the highest number of brick kiln units in Bihar. The district, having a geographical area of 4,976 sq. km and facing an acute water crisis, had 442 brick kiln units in 2018. The second highest number of 325 units was in Saran district, followed by 310 in Patna.

Vice-president, DA, Soumen Maity, said, “When the top soil of a [plot of] land is cut, the humus is lost, making it barren or [resulting in] massive loss of its fertility. The land around the brick kiln also becomes barren because of the enormous heat generated from the furnace of the unit. Even the water table of the area starts falling due to evaporation of the underlying water.”

Maity said that the figures of the mines and geology department only showed the brick kilns that paid royalty, but there were many that were unregistered and illegally run. He added that a lot of water — an estimated 25% of the water available in an area — was used up in the making of red brick.

The study has been done by DA in association with Bihar State Pollution Control Board. Commenting on this situation, BSPCB chairman Ashok Kumar Ghosh said, “The red brick kilns are destroying the agricultural land and depleting the groundwater also. Many have switched to clean technology, which is not the solution to save the agricultural land. The Centre is now stressing on the manufacture of fly ash bricks, using fly ash generated from thermal power units. We have suggested that brick kilns should be given some time to switch to fly ash units, so that they recover the cost they put into switching to green technology.”

Brick kilns are the fourth largest contributors to the wealth earned by the mines and geology department. In 2018-19, the department collected Rs 4,144.11 lakh from the brick kilns.

The DA study said that in 2017, Bihar lost 6,176 acres of agriculture land owing to brick kiln activity. To arrive at this conclusion, the study assumed that 1 metre of topsoil was cut from agriculture fields for making bricks. However, the mines and geology department grants permission to cut top soil up to 3 metres or slightly more than 10 feet. “There are reports that rules are hardly followed when cutting the soil. In many districts, soil has been cut beyond 10 feet,” said Maity.

In 2018, the mines and geology department had issued a notice stating that soil was a “minor mineral” and under the Bihar Minor Mining Act 2017 (Rule 28-2), it was necessary for both sellers and buyers to take permission by registering themselves with the mining and geology department. “However, only one or two people are taking permission before the sale of soil to brick kiln owners in Gaya,” said Rajkishore Sharan, district mining officer, Gaya, pointing to the extent of illegality.

Water conservationist Rajendra Singh, popularly known as the ‘Waterman of India’, said that the brick kilns sliced the top soil, which had the capacity to store water and recharge the aquifers. “Their [large] numbers will definitely affect the water table of the particular area where they are operational,” said Singh.

Monsoon covers whole Bihar, many places receive good rainfall

Source: economictimes.indiatimes.com

PATNA: Several cities and towns in different parts of Bihar on Saturday received good rainfall as the monsoon covered the entire state, Met officials said.

The monsoon which hit Bihar’s north east districts on Friday, covered the entire state on Saturday, the Patna Meteorological Centre said.

Several cities and towns in different parts of the state received a good rainfall bringing down the temperature below normal maximum temperature.

Patna, like other cities, which have been facing the heatwave since the beginning of June this year, on Saturday witnessed a pleasant weather because of the first spell of good rainfall since the morning.

Patna received 33.0 mm of rainfall during the day between 8:30 am to 5:30 pm, bringing down maximum temperature down to 32.4 degrees Celsius which is three notches below normal, Met official said.

Gaya recorded a temperature of 33.0 degrees Celsius which is three degrees below normal maximum temperature, he said.

Bhagalpur and Purnea recorded maximum temperature of 36.0 degrees and 33.8 degrees respectively, Met official said, adding that Bhagalpur and Purnea recorded 3.2 mm and 0.3 mm rainfall respectively.

Met department forecast said that Patna is expected to witness generally cloudy sky on Sunday while Gaya, Bhagalpur and Purnea are expected to witness generally cloudy sky with possibility of rain or thunderstorm.

Postcard to Gaya: The killer heatwave revives memories of our faithful, much-loved Saifuddin

Source: timesofindia.indiatimes.com

What connects me to a distant Bihari cluster where a heat wave claimed 61 lives last weekend? It’s a four generation debt of gratitude. Saifuddin has surfaced to my consciousness. He’s always been in its mothballed folds though he died nearly 26 years ago. How could he not be, considering that he came into our family just weeks   before I did, and went on to supervise the  passage to adulthood of my own two sons?  A callow village lad, he’d been recruited to serve my grandfather.

The dormant memories haemorrhaged my brain because one of those three reeling   districts had been implanted there since i was 12. Every month, Saifu would request, ‘Bachi-baba, pata likh dijiye’. And I’d neatly write the address on his postcard: Village Karanja, Post Jakhim, Dist Gaya, Bihar. But, as far as we were concerned, ours was his only home, and his devotion confirmed this. He had risen to Cook, but he was also our park-taker, school/ college lunch-bringer, earthy idiom-supplier: ‘Jiska bandar wohi nachayega’ he’d scoff at my clumsy onion-chopping. He even became my ‘dowry’.

Alarmed over domestic demands skewing my career, Dad despatched him on the Howrah Mail. My protests against such ‘apron strings’, quickly turned to daily thanksgiving for this talisman against perfidious Mumbai maids. Et al. Bawling No 1 Son would quieten as soon as Saifu took him in his arms. Through the boys’ acne and ecstasy, he filled in for Absentee Parents. He berated No 1’s girlfriends for phoning during his siesta, and No 2 for fussing over his clothes ( ‘Coallage jata, ke party mein?’ ). He was such a stabiliser that all fuses blew during his summer sojourn to  ‘muluk’,  and everyone lit up when he returned, darker,  thinner, but – so we liked to think – equally happy to be back.

We selfishly put off his retirement, but finally surendered to his real family. The sons he barely knew had gone off to jobs, and a male elder was needed to look after the left-behind wives in Village Karanja. We got a postcard of his passing a year later.  It was on No 1 Son’s 20th birthday, and now there was no Saifu to comfort his silent bawling.

Historical treasures of India in Bihar: Bodh Gaya, Nalanda, Pawapuri

Source:- connectedtoindia.com

The Mahabodhi Temple Complex or Bodh Gaya, in India’s Bihar state – which is also known as the place where Gautam Buddha attained enlightenment – is probably one of the top 100 places in the world to visit before you die.

For Buddhists, Bodh Gaya is one of the four main pilgrimage sites related to the life of Gautama Buddha. The three other sites are Kushinagar, Sarnath (both in Uttar Pradesh state), and Lumbini (in Nepal).

In 2002, Mahabodhi Temple became a UNESCO World Heritage Site and though the complex is well-maintained, the surrounding town is still under developed.

Next to the temple, to its western side, is the holy Bodhi tree, under which the Buddha is said to have meditated and reached enlightenment. In the Pali Canon, the site is called Bodhimanda and the monastery there the Bodhimanda Vihara. The tallest tower is 55 metres in height.

In approximately 250 BCE, about 200 years after Buddha attained enlightenment, Indian Emperor Asoka the Great who was one of the rulers of the Mauryan Empire – one of the world’s largest empires at its time – is said to have visited Bodh Gaya with the intention of establishing a monastery and shrine.

As part of the temple, he built the diamond throne, called the Vajrasana, attempting to mark the exact spot of Buddha’s enlightenment. Asoka is therefore considered the founder of the Mahabodhi Temple.

One of the interesting features of the sprawling complex is the Mucalinda Lake in the centre of which is a sculpture of Buddha seated under the hood of a cobra. It is said that when Buddha was spending his sixth week of enlightenment here, a cobra and other creatures protected him from severe thunderstorms.

Rajgir, the first capital of the kingdom of Magadha, a state that would eventually evolve into the Mauryan Empire, is not far from the temple and also a must visit. Its date of origin is unknown, although ceramics dating to about 1000 BC have been found in the city. This area was one of the favourite places for Gautama Buddha and the well known ‘Atanatiya’ conference was held atop the mountain called Vulture’s Peak.

Known for the Vishwa Shanti Stupa, located at a considerable height, one of the ‘adventurous’ aspects of the place is that you can take a ride in a cable car on a ropeway to ascend and descend. Rajgir is also famous for its hot water springs, locally known as Brahmakund, a sacred place for Hindus. The Vishwa Shanti Stupa, built in 1969, is one of the 80 peace pagodas in the world built to spread the message of peace and non-violence.

An ancient centre of higher learning – the Nalanda University – is also within travelling distance. The university founded by a King Sakraditya flourished between the fifth century CE and 1197 CE, supported by patronage from the Hindu Gupta rulers as well as Buddhist emperors.

An official guide at the place explained that the complex was built with red bricks and its ruins occupy an area of 14 hectares. At its peak, the university attracted scholars and students from as far away as Tibet, China, Greece and Persia and its architectural uniqueness lay in the way the spaces for learning, residence and meditation were clearly demarcated.

The university was ransacked and destroyed by an army under Bakhtiyar Khilji in 1193. The great library of Nalanda University was so vast that it is reported to have burned for six months after the invaders set fire to it.

Opposite the ruins is a museum that houses various items of historical interest unearthed during the excavations and a little way ahead is the Xuan Zang Memorial Hall which has a beautiful tapestry covering two walls that provide an account of the traveller’s sojourn across India and other countries.

Xuan Zang primarily became famous for his 17-year overland journey to India, which is recorded in detail in the classic Chinese text ‘Great Tang Records on the Western Regions’. The place is immaculately maintained though of course the same cannot be said for any of the towns in Bihar where, for one thing, there is no traffic discipline and you are likely to be either mowed down by a truck or be rendered deaf with the drivers’ habit of sounding their horns at a high pitch and for long periods of time.

One of the other interesting sites is Pawapuri, a holy place for the Jain community located about 101 km from Patna, Bihar’s capital city. It is here that Mahavira attained nirvana or ‘moksha’ in around 5th century BCE. Mahavira, according to a temple priest there, was the last of the 24 ‘tirthankaras’ of the Jain faith and it was here that he was cremated.

There was a great rush to collect his ashes, with the result that so much soil was removed from the place of his cremation that a pond was created. Now, an exquisite marble temple in the middle of a lotus pond, the Jal Mandir, stands magnificently on a rectangular island.


The enablers: These changemakers are helping millions, breaking barriers

Source: economictimes.indiatimes.com

Ramesh, a daily wage labourer from Gaya (Bihar) works in a brick kiln factory in Madhya Pradesh that is situated in a region that does not have any bank or ATM in its 10 km vicinity. As a result, he finds it extremely hard to obtain money, unless he decides to skip half a day’s work – just to visit the nearest bank branch.

A large section of the society has been bypassed by formal channels of banking and finance and most find it difficult to access or understand such services. It’s precisely in such scenarios wherein, a number of fintech players are now playing a crucial role in bridging the physical distance and the information asymmetry.

Payworld, one such digital-led finance player, targets a large number of individuals in the Bottom of the Pyramid (BTP) section of the society. Since 2006, Payworld has been operating with the idea of assisted ecommerce across the country, particularly in far-flung regions where access to many of the basic financial solutions is still few and far in between.

Clocking 200,000-250,000 transactions on a daily basis, enabled via its 200,000 retail points across the country, the platform’s existing basket of offerings include the most basic of utility services, such as domestic money remittance, mobile and DTH recharges, rail, air and bus reservation, insurance facilities, utility bill collections, digital wallets and cash withdrawal points.

Noteworthy is, that for facilitating these services, the enterprise does not charge anything from its customer, but instead charges various service providers that are on-board its platform. “Service providers such as insurance companies, investment portfolio companies give us a margin that we share with the retailer,” tells Praveen Dhabhai, the fintech’s COO

Fuelling entrepreneurship
One quite visible benefit of the unique modus operandi of the enterprise means that while taking the idea of assisted ecommerce to nation’s tier 2-3 regions, it has also produced thousands of new age entrepreneurs. This is evident from the fact that the company today boasts of more than 200,000 retail points across the country, thereby acting as a source of (additional) revenue for thousands of rural-based entrepreneurs.

As Dhabani puts it, “Since inception, the key motivation behind Payworld has been to facilitate an additional revenue stream for small shop owners, entrepreneurs and SMEs, besides accelerating their financial inclusion.”

The platform also provides Aadhaar enabled payment service to a large number of MSMEs, thereby addressing their working capital requirements – an acute problem for MSMEs based out of India’s hinterlands.

“Under our definition of assisted ecommerce, Payworld also facilitate SME’s loans. It also acts as a Composite Corporate Agent to provide small-ticket insurance solutions, besides facilitating various investment options in portfolios,” he adds.

Payworld says it is filling an important space where it did about 35 million transactions with 22 million unique customers last year. Dhabhani says using data analytics, the firm can even analyse if a customer coming for remittance is a good fit for loans (from various NBFCs on its platform), or if a would-be-borrower is a good potential for insurance schemes/mutual fund products too.

Shiprocket: Making business shipping easy
Shiprocket wants to drive efficiency in India’s ecommerce logistics by connecting online retailers with logistics providers along the supply chain. The digital platform aims at collaboratively connecting online retailers, logistics companies and consumers on an all-in-one platform. Boasting of a nationwide network, with 26,000 pin codes available for pickups, deliveries and cash-on-delivery (COD), Goel says that the platform’s core ..

Backed by business analytics to help sellers make informed decisions, the logistics aggregator currently has 15,000 sellers in its platform.

“We operate in the ecommerce enablement space. We are living in a time where on one end of the spectrum you may have housewives selling on WhatsApp, and on Instagram, and on the other, an SMB trader operating out of (say) Surat, who could be selling items directly via his own website. Shiprocket caters to the needs of both such individuals,” says Goel.

Cutting costs
Backed by data analytics and API integration solutions, Goel says that the aggregator can manage the entire shipping cycle of SMEs on one platform, leading to a significant reduction to their logistics costs.
Experts say, the Indian ecommerce space is in the nascent stage and requires protection from major foreign brands that have often been accused of violating competition norms and predatory pricing. Goel believes that his platform acts as a springboard f ..

Terming logistics costs as the biggest Achilles heel of small entrepreneurs, Goel says if a typical SMB today is selling an item worth Rs 600, then his logistics costs will be around Rs 200 – a significant 30% of the total amount of the order. Goel, thus believes, Indian SMBs are not able to compete with big etailers on the price front. Shiprocket wants to turnaround the situation for them.

“What we bring is that we a similar cost structure and a similar technology that the global players boast of – at a much lower rate, without compromising on the consumer experience, thereby helping Indian SMEs reach a level playing field,” he adds.

ShopX: offering unique solutions for a unique India
Useful to MSMEs, Nandan Nilekani-backed ShopX is an omnichannel retail operating platform that acts as a hub for connecting brands, retailers, and consumers – all at one place.

As aspirations rise across India, consumers in smaller towns and cities want to purchase brands considered desirable. However, for major brands selling in Tier 2 and 3 towns is a costly proposition, which means local shopkeepers often miss out on what consumer want. The startup aims to connect thousand of mom-and-pop shop owners with FMCG brands directly. Through a digital catalogue, small retailers spread across India can directly order from brands like Unilever, L’oreal and even Apple. ShopX h ..

With more than one lakh retailers across the country signed up on its shop network, the business-to-business (B2B) ecommerce platform claims to execute $400 million of annualised business. The startup claims to manage over 50,000 transactions per day and power a deeply integrated supply chain.

“We realised that India is different. It’s neither the US nor China and needs its own principles-based answers. We observed that India has a beautiful and widespread network of small merchants across the country, and by digitising them, we can create something akin to an Uber for retail – a shared economy model which utilises pre-existing infrastructure,” says Sharma.

While holding the view that the main mechanism of organising retail in the future will neither be the large format retail paradigm, nor the traditional B2C ecommerce model, he opines that although both of the before-mentioned models have been heavily funded, they together still amounted to less than 10% of retail.

Sharma believes that when one extends the concept of how traditional retail works for the benefit of ecommerce players, the outcome is a model where customer specific customisation is lost. Citing an anomaly in the existing e-retailing framework, he goes on to highlight how a customer logging in from Bangalore on a cold December morning can see the same sweatshirts as someone logging in from a far colder Delhi.

“At ShopX, our omnichannel strategy focusses on customisation, localisation and personalisation. We ensure that every retailer gets a unique view of the merchandise on offer from brands. Present in over 300 towns across India, our technology platform ensures that a Kirana owner in South Bangalore gets to see a different range of products and offers from a Kirana store in Belgaum,” elaborates Sharma.

The founder also cites ‘discoverability’ as their other USP, saying this differentiator allows shoppers to discover the best prices and products available in their vicinity and connect with retailers digitally. The startup has a consumer facing app for this. It has also recently acquired two entities – GabbarDeals and PriceMap. The founding duo believes that with these moves, they have simplified the buying and selling experience for retailers, besides making it easier for consumers to shop.

Maintaining that ShopX has been able to add more than 15,000 retailers to its network each month in recent times, Sharma adds that the startup is targeting one million small retailers to enable ordering, delivery, returns and customer servicing for 400 million consumers. “We are targeting a billion-dollar scale within the next 12 months.”

Now fly to Varanasi, Gaya Buddhist circuit in India at affordable rates; check IndiGo flight offers

Source: financialexpress.com

From August, you can fly to pilgrim towns of Varanasi and Gaya, Buddhist circuit in affordable rates! IndiGo has announced 12 non-stop daily and weekly flights to boost air connectivity to Varanasi and Gaya. Now you can travel to Gaya Airport or Bodhgaya International Airport (GAY) and Lal Bahadur Shastri International Airport in Varanasi (VNS) from Netaji Subhash Chandra Bose International Airport in Kolkata (CCU) and Jay Prakash Narayan International Airport (PAT).

IndiGo flight offers, ticket fares, timings

The 12 non-stop daily and weekly flights will start from August 8. Bookings for these IndiGo flights have opened.

Flight number 6E 7713 will depart from Kolkata on a daily basis at 7 am and will reach Gaya at 8.35 am. The fare of the flight will Rs 1999. Flight number 6E 7714 will leave from Gaya at 9.05 am and arrive in Kolkata at 10.30 am. The ticket price is Rs 1999. This flight won’t be available on Sunday. Flight number 6E 7715 will depart from Kolkata at 11.05 am and will reach Gaya at 12.25 pm. Ticket fare is Rs 1999 and won’t be available on Sunday. There is a weekly flight from Gaya to Varanasi and Varanasi to Gaya. The flight will depart from Gaya at 9.30 am and reach Varanasi at 10.30 am. The fare of the flight is Rs 1499. The direct flight from Varanasi will leave at 11.25 am and reach Gaya at 12.25. The ticket for this flight will cost you Rs 1499. These two flights connecting Gaya and Varanasi will be available only on Sunday.

There are also two daily flights connecting Gaya and Varanasi. One will depart from Gaya at 12.45 pm and will reach Varanasi at 1.45 pm. The return flight from Varanasi will depart at 2.15 pm and will reach Gaya at 3 pm. These fares of these two flights are Rs 1499 per ticket.

Another daily flight from Gaya will take off at 3.20 pm and reach Kolkata at 4.40 pm. Fare of a ticket is fixed at Rs 1999.

A daily flight from Kolkata will leave at 5.25 pm and reach Patna at 7 pm. This flight will cost you Rs 1826. The return flight from Patna will depart at 7.30 pm and reach Kolkata at 9.05 pm. This flight will cost you Rs 1737.

A flight from Kolkata will take off at 9.35 PM and will arrive in Varanasi at 11.35 pm. This flight will cost you Rs 2594. The return flight from Varanasi will depart at 11.55 pm and reach Kolkata at 1.45 am. This flight will cost you Rs 2523.

“As a part of our endeavour to enhance domestic connectivity, our ATR fleet helps us serve regional operations efficiently. We are delighted to have launched these flights on the Buddhist circuit, which not only provide more travel options to customers, but also enable people to come closer to Indian history and spirituality. These flights will also help attract new tourist arrivals from around South East Asia, where IndiGo is adding a number of new routes into Kolkata over the next few months, including services from Vietnam, Hong Kong, and China,” Chief Commercial Officer of IndiGo William Boulter said. “With the introduction of these flights, we will continue to provide the flexibility of choice to our customers with a consistent on-time, affordable, courteous and hassle-free flying experience,” Boulter said.