Patna, Sept. 30: The tourism department is developing a permanent facility near Kangan Ghat for tourists who come to Patna City every year to pay obeisance at Patna Sahib, the birthplace of Sikh Guru Gobind Singh.
The tourist centre will come up in the vicinity of the Takht Sri Harmandir Sahib gurdwara in Patna City. 'It will be ready by November 30 and we are monitoring work on a daily basis,' said a senior tourism department official.
The deadline to make the centre fully functional has been set keeping in mind the concluding function of Prakash Utsav - the 350th birth anniversary celebrations of Guru Gobind Singh - from December 21-25.
The tourist facilitation centre at Kangan Ghat would be a G+2 structure. It will have 14 rooms and a community hall in addition to facilities that one looks towards during a pilgrimage.
'Apart from providing basic amenities for a comfortable stay, we intend to engage services of some personnel who can guide the tourists staying here to destinations they would like to visit during the concluding function of Prakash Utsav,' said the tourism department official.
The department has yet not finalised the modalities to run the facility and the charges tourists have to pay.
'Most likely lodging charges would be waived off for the tourists coming to take part in the concluding function of Prakash Utsav,' said the official.
'But so far as food and other amenities are concerned, the details have not been worked out. No final decision has been taken if the facilitation centre will be run by the department or a private agency.'
He, however, said the centre was part of a bigger plan to develop the entire Patna city area, where the Patna Sahib gurdwara is located. A park, Guru Ka Bagh, is part of the project.
The park will be developed on a 10-acre plot provided by the state government, and it will depict the whole life of Guru Gobind Singh through models and write-ups.
It won't be in place, however, before Prakash Utsav as the process to set up the park has only been initiated till now. A proposal has been sent to the central government for final approval.
A source in the tourism department said the Bihar government is determined to develop the park and in case of denial of funds by the Centre, the facility will be developed from internal resources.
For the conclusion of Prakash Utsav, too, the government has decided to again set up tent cities in the Patna bypass area and Kangan Ghat.
'As the permanent facilitation centre has been made to take care of the general rush round-the-year, the government has decided to set up two tent cities for 4-5 lakh tourists expected in Patna for the concluding event,' the official said.