If you are planning to visit Patna on official work or vacation this week, ensure you have a hotel reservation. Else, finding accommodation in the city could be a touch difficult.

The district administration has booked several rooms in the premier hotels to accommodate VVIPs and newly elected MLAs likely to attend Nitish Kumar's swearing-in ceremony.

Nitish will take oath for the fifth time on November 20 and to make the function a grand affair, the administration has booked several rooms at Maurya and Chanakya hotels for accommodating guests, who include chief ministers, leaders from different political parties, Congress vice-president Rahul Gandhi, a few Union ministers and others.

Of the 70 rooms at Maurya, the administration has booked 20 for two days (November 20 and 21).

An employee of the hotel said: "Owing to our regular guests who are from the corporate world and the media, we were able to provide only 20 rooms to the district administration."

Similarly, 30 rooms at hotel Chanakya have been booked. The two premier hotels are likely to accommodate Nitish's guests.

Apart from the two premier hotels, the state guest house is being readied for other VVIPs.

According to protocol, the two blocks of the state guest house on Desh Ratna Marg is meant for accommodating visiting chief ministers, Union ministers, Supreme Court and high court judges, and senior bureaucrats from the Centre. The two blocks have 17 rooms.

Sources said chief ministers visiting Patna will be provided accommodation at the guest house, while leaders from different political parties will stay in hotels.

The government has made arrangements at the circuit house for the security detail of VVIPs. The circuit house has 42 rooms.

The administration has also booked many tier-II hotels to provide accommodation to newly elected MLAs.

As the new Assembly has 99 first timers, they will need accommodation for the entire period of the opening session. To accommodate MLAs who don't have houses in Patna, 25 rooms at Marwari Awas on Fraser Road has been booked.

Om Prakash Sharma, an employee at Marwari Awas, said: "Twenty-five rooms have been booked from November 19 till the last date of the Assembly session."

Sources said the need to book hostels for accommodating MLAs has arisen since many flats meant for legislators in R-block were demolished to build new duplex bungalows for lawmakers.

District public relations officer R.B. Sahay said: "The district administration has booked three hotels for VIPs and a guest house. For MLAs, the Marwari Awas and two other hostels have been booked."