1st Patna Marathon 2012 PRESS RELEASE

Patna, Jan 7 2012 The organizing team of , 1st Patna Marathon announced few major developments over last few weeks. We had many meetings with Partners, Sponsors, Govt Departments and the global teams regarding successful conduct of this event. In a series of meetings held with Honorable Deputy CM of Bihar at his residence and office till late evening, Shree Sushil Modi jee earnestly requested representatives of Team Patna Marathon (CEO, Atul Kumar, VP, Anandi Singh, Chief People Officer, Piyush Kishore and other members to change the date from 19th Feb 2012 to a later date like 26th Feb 2012. Reason being the logistical challenge of hosting two Global Events in Patna at the same time. The original date of 19th Feb, was suggested by Principal Secy, HRD, Bihar Govt, to coincide with "Global Summit" events on 18th-19th Feb, 2012 where people from many countries including few heads of state from neighboring countries like Nepal, Bhutan are also expected and they also get a chance to participate in Bihar’s 1st Global Scale sports event where elite runners from Africa, other countries, Bihar, Jharkhand, Orissa, UP, neighboring states and rest of India are expected to participate.

Many govt departments including 1) HRD ( Education) 2) Art, Youth & Culture, 3) Health, 4)Tourism, 5) Rural Development, 6) Police had expressed solidarity & support to the event. However City Administration expressed concerns about their ability to host a major conference (Global Summit) and Global Sport, Health, Youth & Fun events at same time. Since, organizers are keen to ensure world class hospitality & participation, they have agreed to change the date by 1 week. HRD Principal Secy had already sent a formal letter to all relevant govt departments expressing support and requesting support. Director, Higher Education also sent a letter to all Universities to participate and volunteer for the event. Tourism Minister, Sunil Pinto jee expressed his support and world class hospitality for attendees, Minister of Youth,Art & Culture Sukhda Pandey jee has assured support and Principal Secretary C Lalsota issued directives to Director, Sports to ensure full support.

There is a tremendous excitement in the Armed Forces, Police Forces also regarding participation in this event. Various educational institutions of Bihar including schools, colleges, NIT, Patna, BIT Patna,NIFT have also been extending full support.

As a preparation for event, the organizers have also started operating out of a Camp office at Shaligram Complex on Ashok Rajpath which is in close proximity to Gandhi Maidan (start point and finish point) and various educational institutions. Our Camp Office at Shaligram Complex, will be formally inaugurated after Makar Sankranti via a Pooja and press conference.

Dr Ajay Kumar, a renowned Doctor and former President of the Indian Medical Association has agreed to become, The Medical Director and will oversee the medical/health related preparations which is most critical part of a Marathon. Route Manager, Sukesh Ranjan of Chanakya Law University had meetings with DGP Abhayanand and DIG Ravindran Shankaran regarding the routes and is co-ordinating the Route Plan and will be co-ordinating the 42km Route, 10km, 5km and other routes with Traffic SP and other city officials. In a meeting with Patna Commissioner, Ramaiah , he also expressed his support and “relief” about change of date from logistics perspective. Since change of date will have a major impact for runners, attendees, the organizers have been assured full support by Dy CM, HRD Minister as various govt institutions.

What is unique about this event is that a global team which connected and emerged via social media has been visiting and/or camping in Patna for last few months. Santosh Pandey, President, Patna Marathon organizing team, spent few weeks in Patna, Chhapra, Delhi, Mumbai, Neeraj Sinha, VP Sponsorship and Shikha Sinha have been camping in Patna for 1 week every month. Ravi Kumar,Director, Media & Outreach is also visiting Patna, Hazipur, Samastipur and area. Our young CIO, Ankit Prakash based in Bengaluru is managing all technical operations. One of our earliest believers and donors, Sandeep Rajarshi, spent time with Patna team during his India trip. While this event is being hosted by BEN, it is being supported and supported by many individuals, organizations (SANTOBA, NOBA) and many other with love for the city, state and the idea of “healthy body, healthy mind”.

We also had positive developments on sponsorship front with relentless efforts of members like Richa Rai from Delhi, Firoz Ansari from Baroda, Atul Gupta (camping in Patna). Few global, many national corporations and fewlocal orgs have confirmed their support to the event as “sponsors” and “partners”, and details will be shared by Neeraj Sinha during the coming weeks. Our team represented by CEO, Atul Kumar, is also participating in Pravasi Bhartiya Diwas in Jaipur. Priyanka, CEO of our charity fund raising partner organisation, Wishberry”, will be re-presenting Patna Marathon at Wharton India Economic Conference at Mumbai.

We are also enhancing our leadership team and executive team. Prof Prabhat Ranjan has agreed to be a Chief Mentor. Nupur Nishith as GM-Creativity and Rajeev Kamal as Head - Design & Creativity have been working on some amazing posters, fliers, calendars and they will be made available via retail stores and online very shortly. In case you are still not excited about the amazing spring / Basant Panchami or National Youth Week then in coming few weeks especially after “Sakrat”, world will start visiting Patna and join the “run”. Our very own, PALTAN, (Ganga Dolphin) will also like to wselcome you to Patn.

So start running/jogging wherever you are since 26th of Feb, 2012 (Sunday), we all will be running for progress. Running for health, Running for different causes.

Different Causes, Different People, ONE Marathon.

Contact:
contact@patnamarathon.com
Aditya Homes Flat No. 101, Anandpuri , West Boring Canal Road, Patna, 800 001
www.patnamarathon.com
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