Amid speculation that Hollywood starlet Lindsay Lohan might spend some time at an undisclosed ashram in Bihar during her India sojourn, the state has recorded a fourfold increase in the number of foreign tourists in the past three years.
This year, the state has witnessed the arrival of 356,446 foreign tourists against 94,446 in 2006, according to Bihar State Tourism Development Corporation. It is a record number, said an official.
Boasting Buddhist sites like Bodh Gaya and Nalanda, and the Jain sites like Rajgir and Pawapuri, Bihar has always been a favoured destination. But bad road connectivity, lack of amenities and poor law and order situation prior to 2005, probably, deterred tourists from visiting the state.
“The sharp rise in the number of foreign tourists reflects the improvement in road connectivity, amenities and the law and order situation. Gaya airport, recently upgraded to an international terminal, may have also helped,” said BSTDC managing director Saadat Hasan Pintu.
Officials said that Bihar witnessed the first sudden convergence of a large number of tourists from the US, the UK, France, the Netherlands, Germany besides many other Asian countries at Taregna, on the outskirts of Patna, during the total solar eclipse on July 21.
Chief minister Nitish Kumar, who had gone to Taregna to watch the rare celestial event, had made special arrangements for the foreign tourists converging on the place where ancient Indian scientist Aryabhatta had set up his observatory during Mauryan period.
“The famous cattle fair at Sonepur alone got 65 tourists mainly from the UK and other European countries,” Pintu said.
Unconfirmed sources said Lohan might spend sometime in a secluded ashram in the state during the documentary project on trafficking. Arun Singh, the head of Bhumika, which works on human trafficking, also got an email about Lohan working on the issue. But government officials are tight-lipped on her visit, probably because of security reasons.
The government was also aggressively pursuing plans to set up an international university at Nalanda, the site of ancient Buddhist learning. The university has been drawing attention from China, Japan and other Buddhist countries though it promises to be a modern centre of excellence.
BSTDC officials said that hotels at Nalanda and Bodh Gaya had been upgraded to ensure comfort for tourists and all the roads connecting to the heritage sites had been repaired with consistent police patrolling. The corporation, for the first time, has got four Volvo buses exclusively to cater to the foreign tourists visiting the Buddhist sites.
Earlier, a few foreigners wanted to visit Valmiki Nagar Tiger Reserve on the India-Nepal border in north Bihar.
