August 7, 2013: Ranchi’s soaring devotion is preventing Jamshedpur’s flight of faith from taking off.

The sudden spurt in number of bookings for the special Ranchi-Deoghar flight has meant that steel city residents have to wait for some time for their holy date with Lord Shiva. This is because only one nine-seater Cessna Caravan has been pressed into service to ferry pilgrims from both Ranchi and Jamshedpur to the temple town as part of Baba Baidyanath Darshanam.

The service, launched by tourism and civil aviation departments, was supposed to start in Jamshedpur from August 1, but got postponed.

“My friends and I had booked tickets for August 5 as it was a Monday. We had paid the full sum, but then we learnt that the flight had been deferred. We were told that as Ranchi had more bookings, the flight would operate from there. Now, I really don’t know whether I will be able to finally go to Deoghar or not,” said Avinash Singh, chairperson of Sheyn International School.

The Rs 14,999-package, which includes two-way air transfer to Deoghar, rest and refreshments at the state tourism department’s guest house and a premium darshan at Babadham without having to stand in endless queues, has attracted about 20 fliers in the steel city as of now.

Poonam Anand, Baba Baidyanth Darshanam’s co-ordinator and member of FJCCI that is supporting the initiative in Ranchi, admitted there were problems in co-ordinating the dates. “We will chalk out a fresh schedule. Bookings are continuously flowing in from Ranchi. Hence, we could not spare the aircraft for Jamshedpur. However, we will ensure that both cities get equal treatment,” she said.

Source: The Telegraph, DT. August 7, 2013.