Flying high with Delhi-Patna air-fare in festival season
Patna,(BiharTimes): When the organizers of a programme invited a renowned social scientist to Patna on October 29 (Saturday), that is, a day before Diwali, they had to spent about four times more on the up and down air-ticket.
The air fare from Delhi to Patna was Rs 12,000 while the return ticket on the same evening cost Rs 6,000. This clearly shows that there was a mad rush to reach home in Bihar.
Normally the up-down ticket cost something around Rs 5,500 to Rs 6,000.
The rush to Patna continued for the whole week as after Diwali it was Chhath. After the Chhath is over the fare of ticket would continue to remain high––but this time from Patna to Delhi, as there would be a rush to return to Delhi and join duty or business.
With Gaya international airport closed for three weeks for repair of runway and all the trains packed––in fact over-crowded––many people opted to travel by their private vehicles to Bihar.
Thus the inter-state and intra-state road transportation have increased in north India. Mahatma Gandhi Setu bridging noarth and south Bihar stand as testimony to this fact.
Flying to Patna from Delhi or even Mumbai or Bangalore has become more expensive than travelling from Delhi to Singapore, Bangkok, Colombo etc.
The airfare on Delhi-Patna route for Friday was Rs 12,000, whereas that for Kolkata-Bangkok was around Rs 8,000 for the same day.
Similarly, Kolkata-Singapore fare was around Rs 11,000, which is even less than the airfare on Mumbai-Patna> route.
