Here's a reason to be on the move this winter. Get set for an amazing hop-on hop-off sightseeing experience around the popular tourist spots in the city on open-top double-decker buses to be operated by Bihar State Tourism Development Corporation (BSTDC). Like the previous four years, BSTDC is planning to provide various amenities, including food courts and sitting kiosks at Sabbalpur diara, the city's very own sandbar.

 Residents are however, cautioned not to pin hopes as BSTDC has several failed projects in its kitty as well. For instance buggies (phaeton), which were started in 2011 with much hype, are no longer seen in the city. The cafeteria at Patna Museum with a seating capacity for 100 people was closed in January 2013, a year after its inauguration. Piyush Kumar Tripathi of The Telegraph lists the promises being made by the tourism department for the winter and its earlier failures

PROMISES

Open-deck buses

On the lines of Mumbai Bhraman open-deck buses run by Maharashtra Tourism Development Corporation in the heart of the financial capital of the country, BSTDC has recently placed orders for three such buses.

Such state-of the-art buses also run in London (in picture left) and other western countries.

Senior officials in BSTDC informed that a Haryana-based firm is expected to make the delivery of one of the buses by the end of this month. This bus would run in Patna and the other two buses to be delivered later would be run at Bodhgaya and Rajgir.

Tourism department principal secretary-cum-BSTDC chairman Deepak Prasad said: 'The process for procurement of the open-top buses is on and people can soon see them on the roads. The idea is to promote sightseeing in the city.'

Sources claimed that each open-deck bus would have 45 seats and their ground floor would be air-conditioned. 'There would be 20 seats on the ground floor and 25 on the top floor. The height of the bus would be 17ft,' said a senior official in BSTDC.

Sabbalpur diara

Revellers fond of Sabbalpur diara situated in the middle of the Ganga have reasons to rejoice, as the tourism department would undertake the riverine development over the next couple of weeks. Facilities, including temporary food courts and eco-friendly river-view lounges are being planned at the sandbar.

 ?BSTDC has been developing Sabbalpur diara as a hangout spot from the past couple of years and the same work would be done this time as well,? said Deepak.

Started in 2010, the sandbar surrounded is given a fresh look by BSTDC to regale visitors during winter. Over the past three years, the sandbar has remained one of the most sought-after destinations by residents on a number of occasions, including Christmas, New Year and Valentine?s Day apart from day-to-day events.

FAILURES

Buggy ride 

BSTDC had bought four Victoria-type English tourist chariots each costing Rs 1.75 lakh from a Patiala-based firm in October 2011, of which two were running in Patna and remaining four were sent to Ghorakatora Lake in Rajgir. In Patna, the carriages used to run daily between Old Secretariat and Raj Bhavan in the evening.

However, the service became irregular from earlier this year and it has completely stopped running for the past few weeks. ?The buggies are parked at our headquarters at Kautilya Vihar hotel. The person who initially ran the chariots died a couple of months ago and his son, who is a student, does not run it regularly,? said the BSTDC official.

Each chariot can accommodate two people in the front row and three people in the back. The charges for taking its ride were fixed at Rs 25 per head and Rs 200 for booking the entire chariot.

Museum cafeteria

Former chief minister Nitish Kumar had inaugurated a cafeteria on the Patna Museum premises on December 22, 2012 and it was closed in March 2013 owing to the lack of coordination between the museum authorities and BSTDC.

BSTDC officials claimed it was difficult to operate the cafeteria through private firms owing to strict restrictions imposed by the museum authorities on timings and other operational aspects. ?It has been decided that BSTDC would not operate the museum cafeteria and the museum authorities can now decide how to operate it,? said the BSTDC official.

The cafeteria has a seating capacity for 100 people and an open-air seating arrangement.