Nalanda administration gears up for Rajgir Mahotsav in November

RAJGIR: The 28th Rajgir Mahotsav will be held in the last week of November this year. The Mahotsav, being organised by the Nalanda district administration and the Bihar State Tourism Development Corporation (BSTDC), is likely to be inaugurated by CM Nitish Kumar at International Convention Centre.
Nalanda DM Thiyagarajan SM said the three-day Mahotsav would have some new features this year.“Although the venue has not been finalised yet, it is likely to be held at the Sainik School ground,” the DM added.
Started as Rajgir Nritya Mahotsav by the then Union tourism minister H K L Bhagat and the then CM Bindeshwari Dubey in far flung Sone Bhandar area in 1986, the festival remained a low profile event as it was mostly attended by officials and limited number of visitors till it was brought to the sprawling Qila Maidan at the foot of picturesque Ratnagiri hills in 2011 by the then Nalanda DM Sanjay Kumar Agrawal at the suggestion of CM Nitish Kumar.
Artists of international reputes, such as Swapna Sundari, Hema Malini, Sonal Mansingh, Bismillah Khan, Meenakshi Seshadri, Ghulam Ali, Pandit Birju Maharaj, Hari Prasad Chaurasia, late Sanyukta Panigrahi, Anup Jalota, Jagjit Singh, Kumar Sanu and Preetam Mukherjee have performed at the Mahotsav on different occasions.