COMED-K exam-bound Bihar students left high and dry

Flight operators have hiked fares to Bangalore exorbitantly

Reason: Even the flights to Bangalore are overbooked, and it’s very difficult to reach there either late on Friday night or Saturday so as to appear for the Sunday exams. But those who are willing to pay through their nose, they can take a route via Kolkata or Delhi, but in that case they will have to pay more than thrice the normal fare.

Normally, Patna-Bangalore air fare in Indigo flight is around Rs 6500-Rs 7000, depending on when you book the tickets. But given the situation when there is a flurry of auspicious wedding, coupled by a mad rush for entrance examinations, and the ongoing strike by Air India pilots, the private airlines are making quite a capital.

A Jet Airways flight to Bangalore for Saturday was available for an astronomical sum of Rs 23,201, while for Friday a GoAir ticket was available for 27,231 and that too if you are willing to fly to Delhi and then to Bangalore.

Rescheduled

Similarly, those who want to return from Bangalore to Patna soon after the exams are over, the Monday (May 9) flights can be booked for Rs 17,975 (Indigo) or Jet Airways (via Kolkata) for Rs 19,110. Students like Ankit want to return by May 9 so that he can take the All India Engineering Entrance Examination (AIEEE), which has now been rescheduled to be held on May 11.

“The Railways had run a Patna-Yashwantpur special train (03285/03286) on Thursday but there was huge rush of students. All the berths were booked within half an hour after the reservation counter opened,” said RKP Choudhary, whose son had to appear at the COMED-K but could not board the train.

Choudhary has asked his son to gear up for May 11 AIEEE, or else “wait till Nitish Kumar opens more engineering colleges in Bihar so that students from the state do not have to run after colleges in Bangalore and Pune.”