Bettiah: A day ahead of Prime Minister Narendra Modi's visit, East Champaran district headquarters Motihari, about 153km north of Patna, on Monday virtually turned into a fortress and flaunted a Gandhimay (Gandhi-centric) look as a flurry of activities gripped the town.

Stealing the show were a large number of swakchhgrahis who thronged Motihari from different parts of the country with Belal Ahmad, a resident of Pulwama in Jammu and Kashmir becoming the first swakchhgrahi to reach Motihari.

The district administration has pressed buses to ferry swakchhgrahis from Chhatawni bus stand to the tent city, better known as Swakch Gram, where lodging facilities for around 15,000 swakchhgrahis have been made.

"All the arrangements for the stay of swakchhgrahis have been made. According to the schedule, 15,000 swakchhgrahi are expected to reach by this evening, while the rest will reach by tomorrow (Tuesday) morning," said Motihari DM Raman Kumar, adding a cultural programme had been organised for the entertainment of swakchhgrahis.

According to sources, strict vegetarian but popular dishes from Bihar, Punjab and Rajasthan such as litti chhokha, chhach, gatta kadhi and dhokla among others are on the menu. A Udaypur-based caterer has engaged 600 cooks for the preparations. The caterer has installed three automatic bread makers, each of which can churn out 1,500 chapatis per hour and four hangars have been made to store the feast for 3,800 swakchhgrahis in each.

Spread over an area of 7 lakh square feet, the tent city has 108 dormitories with 72 beds and 650 small tent houses with seven to 13 beds. The tent city has been erected on German pattern, which is safe against heavy downpour and storm. "All basic amenities such as fans and mattresses among other things will be provided to the swakchhgrahis," said Nikhil Agrawal, director of Lallu and Sons Company, which is in-charge of the tent city construction.

The district headquarters has virtually become Gandhi-centric with banners, billboards and posters with slogan of Satyarah se swakchhagrah and pictures of Mahatma Gandhi and his famous spectacles adorning almost every nook and cranny of the town where the PM is scheduled to address 20,000 swakchhagrahis from across the country to mark the conclusion of the centenary year celebrations of Mahatma Gandhi's visit to Champaran launched by the Bihar government in April last year.

Turning the town into a veritable fortress, the district administration has pressed the deployment of over 3,000 police personnel and 500 magistrates.