Adventure sports centre to come up at Rajgir - Bihar

 Bihar government will set up an adventure sports academy near Ghoda Katora Lake in the lap of Panch Pahari at Rajgir in Nalanda district. 

Inaugurating the first Youth Adventure Sports Festival at Bihar Veterinary College ground here on Friday, chief minister Nitish Kumar invited Santosh Yadav, the world's first female mountaineer to scale Mount Everest twice within a year in 1992-93, to set up the academy which would also promote tourism in Bihar. He said Bihar has many places in Rohtas, Gaya and Munger as also Mandar Hills in Banka where tourism could be boosted through adventure sports. The state government would provide all resources, facilities and scholarship to students of government schools for participating in adventure sports, the CM said. 

Santosh, who is married to a businessman from Chowk Bazar in Munger, accepted Kumar's offer to set up the academy at Rajgir. She also asked the CM to send schoolchildren to her Everest Foundation at Manali to learn the ropes of adventure sports. Santosh told TOI that she would also develop centres of adventure sports at Mandar Hills and Munger after setting up an academy at Rajgir. 

Meanwhile, over 2,000 students have registered for participating in parasailing, rock climbing and adventure photography exhibition in the next two days besides relay cycle run on Sunday. It will be a kind of learning experience for the participants. 

Meanwhile, Captain Naveen Rao demonstrated the art of paramotoring by flying up to 500 feet high on a vehicle comprising a glider, trike, engine and a propeller. Captain Mahatva Anand said the glider was made in Israel, trike in France and the 230cc engine in Italy. Only the propeller was made in India, he said. 

Explaining the art of parasailing, two pilots from Gurgaon said a canopy is attached to a jeep. As it moves forward, the parasailor is hoisted in the sky. He attains a height of 300 to 400 feet depending on the wind and weight of the passenger, they explained. 

Other prominent dignitaries present on the occasion were art, culture and youth affairs minister Sukhda Pandey, food and consumer protection minister Shyam Rajak, tourism minister Sunil Kumar Pintu, rural development minister Nitish Mishra and DGP Abhyanand.