Just dial 9304401000 from your mobile to seek any information or complain about anything while visiting Gaya during the 17-day-long Pitripaksh Mela.

The interactive voice response system (IVRS)-based e-samadhaan helpline would connect callers connect to the control room or the officer concerned.

The Pitripaksh Mela, which the state cabinet accorded state fair status at a meeting on Tuesday, is beginning in Gaya on September 8. Chief minister Jitan Ram Manjhi has said he would inaugurate the mela. The helpline has already become operational on a trial basis. The e-samadhan system was started in 2008 but the IVRS pattern was adopted from this year. The interaction between the caller and the officer would be recorded to avoid denial by either side.

The website, www.pinddaangaya.com, launched in 2008, is also being upgraded. The website would have new features this year such as detailed information about tourist places across the Magadh division comprising five districts — Gaya, Jehanabad, Aurangabad, Nawada and Arwal. The list of Gayapal pandas, the Gaya town map, daily rituals, railway time table, information about hotels, guesthouses and dharamshalas, the mela tour package and communication hint is also being updated. Flex and hoardings would be placed not only in Gaya town but also in Patna and Delhi with photographs of pinddaan rituals and the e-samadhaan helpline.

The state urban development department has chalked out plans to ensure permanent arrangements for devotees and tourists visiting Gaya and Bodhgaya. Urban development minister Samrat Chaudhary, during his visit to Gaya on Wednesday, announced that toilets would be constructed in Gaya and Bodhgaya at an estimate of Rs 25 lakh each. The department also plans to provide permanent accommodation and other facilities to pilgrims and tourists visiting the twin cities. The minister said all work would be executed on a public-private partnership (PPP) mode.

“The district urban development authority would work on the projects. There are plans to set up a central bus stand in Gaya on the lines of the one in Patna, which is in the final stages of completion. We are considering shifting the slaughterhouse out of the mela area,” Chaudhary said.