Luxury stay at Parasnath

Luxury stay at Parasnath- Move to woo Jain youths
SHAHNAWAZ AKHTAR

Giridih, Feb. 20: The experience of travelling to Parasnath Hills is all set to change in another two years with high-class lodging and dining facilities coming up in the area.

With an aim to attract youths to the Jain pilgrimage centre, Shri Digambar Jain Saswat Tirthraj Sammedshikhar Trust, a welfare organisation of the Jains, has embarked on a mega project to set up rest houses, hotels, cafeteria and preaching centres in Madhuban, located at the foot of the hills.

The project, Digambar Jain Saswat Vihar, will be wrapped up by 2011. In the first phase, a dharamshala called Niharika has already come up in Madhuban. The five-storeyed building with eight suites was inaugurated on February 15. There are plans to build six more wings comprising three buildings having around 200 rooms, a cafeteria, separate buildings for Jain saints along with preaching centres and special food zones for them called Aharshala.

Keeping in mind the fact there is a perennial crisis of water and power in Madhuban, a power substation and an underground water tank will also be installed.

Every year, around 50,000 Jain pilgrims visit Madhuban and Parasnath Hills. But the community feels that the participation of youth is low because of poor accommodation facilities in Madhuban.

“We hope that with options of better stay, we will be able to bring more and more youths here,” said Yogesh Jain, one of the trustees and architects of the project.

Although the budget is a whopping Rs 7 crore, the facilities will be available to the pilgrims at a very low price.