Rajgir, Jan. 8: Weekends in Rajgir could soon be musical treats for visitors.
Nalanda district administration is set to organise musical evenings on Friday, Saturday and Sunday every week at the tourist spot to enter- tain visitors and prolong their trips.
"Rajgir has many picturesque and historic spots but tourists can visit them only at daytime. After sunset, they are not left with many options for entertainment. Thus, musical evenings would be organised to regale tourists in the evenings on weekends. Artistes will charm visitors with ghazals, classical and folk music," said Nalanda district magistrate (DM) Sanjay Agarwal.
He added: "The musical evenings would be held either near the tourists' information centre or at the Jain Dharamshala at Rajgir Market. We are planning to start the shows soon."
Agarwal announced this during a programme organised by non-government organisation Buddhijivi Varg of Rajgir on Saturday.
The programme was organised to felicitate Nalanda district administration officials for successfully organising the Rajgir Mahotsav.
The three-day-long annual festival to promote tourism at Rajgir started on December 27. Bollywood playback vocalist Alka Yagnik, ghazal singers Roop Kumar Rathod and Sonali Rathod and other artistes had performed at the several cult- ural events.
Sources said apart from weekend musical evenings, the district administration is doing its best to provide necessary assistance to tourists for a safe and comfortable stay in Rajgir.
"The construction of a new tourist information centre in Rajgir is almost complete. All tourists coming to the town would be registered at this centre. They would also be provided with information brochures and CDs, which would contain all relevant information about the tourist location, including various tourist and historical spots," said Agarwal.
He added: "We are also developing a network of 10 police assistance centres for tourists across Rajgir. These centres would display on billboards important numbers, including those of police stations, senior police officers and other emergency services, and would also act as police helplines for tourists, where they can seek help if they experience any inconvenience. Five police assistance centres at Rajgir have already been constructed and the work on five more would be completed in the coming week. We intend to start operations at all these centres by January 15. Work on five tourist information centres at Nalanda and Pawapuri each is also on at present," said Agarwal.
Sources said efforts are also being made to provide easy accommodation facilities to tourists at Rajgir. Plans are afoot to develop a multi-storeyed youth hostel at Rajgir.
"We have identified two or three sites for developing a multi-storeyed youth hostel, which would have the capacity to accommodate around 200 guests," said the DM.
The district administration also has plans to entertain children.
"We have already sent a proposal for developing the existing deer park at Rajgir into a full-fledged zoo, on the line of Sanjay Gandhi Biological Park, Patna. We are also in talks with the tourism department to develop an amusement park for children at Rajgir," said Agarwal.
Rajgir residents are also happy with the plans of the district administration.
"The district administration did a commendable job in organising this year's Rajgir Mahotsav on such a massive scale. While such annual events are definitely going to attract tourists, I would like to appeal to the authorities to create a volunteers' group for cleaning the famous tourist spots at least once a month. Schoolchildren could be a part of these groups," said Arun Kumar Ojha, president elect, Rotary Club of Rajgir.
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