Ahead of Deepavali and the four-day Chhath festival, migrants are visiting different places of Bihar in hordes. With the flight fares skyrocketing and train ticket charts shown full, migrants are reaching their destination by buses and even riding on old auto-rickshaws covering thousands of kilometres.
Four young men on Saturday (November 7, 2026), from Bengaluru, travelled about 2,200 km riding on an old auto-rickshaw to reach Areraj town, near Someshwarnath Dham temple in Motihari of East Champaran district in Bihar.
Reaching their destination in three days, they told local media persons that it was their “desire to celebrate Deepavali and Chhath festival along with family members” and the air ticket fares had gone beyond their capacity. With train ticket charts shown chock-a-bloc they, eventually, decided to travel to their village in Areraj by riding on the old auto-rickshaw, which one of them runs in Bengaluru for a living. The other three who accompanied him in the auto-rickshaw do other causal work in the city for their survival.
The railway department, though, has announced to run special trains for Bihar and other places for the migrants to return to their homes ahead of these two festivals but the returning migrants say there was “no-room available” in the trains.
Bihar Chief Minister Samrat Choudhary, meanwhile, has directed police officials to be vigilant round-the-clock for the safe return of migrants to their homes. In view of these two major festivals all the leaves for police officials have been cancelled till November 17, a senior official said. The Chhath festival this year begins on November 13 and will continue till November 16.
In neighbouring Jharkhand, private bus operators are plying extra buses for the local people to reach their destinations. From the industrial town of Jamshedpur, the number of buses plying daily for Bihar has increased from 85 to 105 but the owners said, “the demand remains unfulfilled in view of the no-room availability in Bihar bound trains”.
“The demand for additional busses are strong for places like Patna, Chhapra, Siwan, Ara, Muzaffarpur, Bhagalpur, Nawada and Nalanda”, they added. “The sharp rise in demand for more buses is likely to be increased in days to come as the auspicious Chhath festival nears. Many passengers are booking their tickets in advance, through the fare remains unchanged”, said Uday Sharma, a Jamshedpur based bus operator. For several passengers, buses have now become the only option to travel to their destination to celebrate the festival as they claimed, “train reservations have exhausted”.
Rajesh Kumar, a software engineer, though, said he was lucky to have booked air tickets three months ago to reach Patna from Delhi. “Even at that time, the air-fare was almost three times of the normal fare”, he rued. He has spent ₹60,000 only on tickets for his family of four, he said.
“As far as I remember, every year, during this festival time of Diwali and Chhath the ticket prices in flights go manifold and train charts show no-room availability… it’s been going on for long with the same scene of crowded trains and buses reaching the State capital, but no government could do anything on this, except announcing more trains on some routes”, said Sanjay Kumar, a Patna based government employee.
Published – November 08, 2026 04:50 am IST
