Patna,(BiharTimes): All roads, rail and air routes are leading to––and leaving from––Gaya as both Hindu and Muslim pilgrims are converging to the city for two varying, yet identical, reasons.
While Hindus from all over the country and abroad are progressing towards the ancient city to offer ‘pindaan’ for the salvation of souls of near and dear ones, Muslims from all the nooks and corners of Bihar are coming here to catch Haj flights for Saudi Arabia.
The city is somewhat lucky in the sense that for the first time the state has a chief minister, who comes from here. He inaugurated the fortnight long Pitripaksha Mela and flagged off the first flight to Jeddah.
If the pilgrims and local citizens are expecting something better for the city it is quite natural.
Gaya has always been a holy place for Hindus and Buddhists. But now an international airport larger than that in Patna has made it an important destination for Muslims too.
Expecting complete face-lift of Gaya in a matter of four months would be demanding too much from the new CM, yet the people have every reason to hope that things would change for the better in this otherwise apparently neglected urban centre of over half a million.
The problem with Gaya is that notwithstanding a lot of projects coming to the city, it lost to Nalanda as the state chief minister for over eight and a half years––that is Nitish Kumar––concentrated in developing it as it is his home district.
So much attention was paid to this district that jokes started doing the rounds that Nitish is the chief minister only of Nalanda, whose headquarters town is incidentally named Biharsharif.
True former President A P J Abdul Kalam announced the revival of Nalanda University eight years back and the classes started on September 1, 2014 yet Gaya too witnessed some developments in the recent years.
But the state government failed to pay as much attention.
Its international airport has become functional a few years back, making it easy for the pilgrims as well as tourists from India and abroad to come. Gaya is very well connected with the Grand Trunk Road––now part of Golden Quadrilateral––as well as Grand Chord Howrah-Delhi railway track. One can travel to almost every corner of the country from Gaya.
In recent years Officers Training Academy came up at the same place where once an army cantonment used to be. The Magadh University and OTA have entered into collaboration for Defence Management Course.
The state government has recently sought detailed proposal for the establishment of the IIM in Magadh University premises.
One of the two Central Universities of Bihar is coming up here so is the Administrative Training Institute.
Besides, there already is a medical and engineering colleges.
Yet whenever the Airport Authority of India demanded land for a new airport in Patna Nitish would offer the same in Nalanda district. What he always ignored is that the distance of already existing Gaya airport from Patna is almot the same as the land offered in Nalanda district.
As the chief minister he promised that the airport in Nalanda would be connected with a six-lane highway to Patna, so that people can travel in very short time. But why was the same offer not made with the already existing Gaya airport? Why no effort was made to further develop Gaya airport, which incidentally is situated just beside OTA, Anugrah Narayan Magadh Medical College and Magadh University and in between Gaya and Bodh Gaya––both these places attract lakhs of tourists and pilgrims annually.
Though Bodh Gaya has developed in the last two decades, things remained more or less the same in Gaya.
Though Bihar had in the last few years three railway ministers yet Bodh Gaya, only about 15 km from Gaya, an important station, could not be connected. Though Lalu Prasad, as the railway minister, announced one such project, not much headway has been made in this direction.
If trains from Patna are extended to Bodh Gaya it would help the tourists and pilgrims a lot. Something like Metro can be introduced. So travelling from Patna would become much faster and smoother.
Whether Manjhi has all these projects in mind or not could not be said with certainty, yet he surprised many people by stating that Gaya should have a bench of the Patna high court. But a few days later he diluted his statement by making a similar announcement for Purnea.
Bihar watchers are of the view that given the fact that Gaya and Patna are too close there is hardly any need for a high court bench in Gaya.
However, at present the chief minister is busy making his native village, Mahkar, another Kalyanbigha, the ancestral village of Nitish Kumar in Nalanda district.
Gaya needs something else as it is one city in the state which attracts highest number of domestic and international tourists––as well as revenue.