Muzaffarpur

Muzaffarpur is North Bihar's principal commercial city, famous across India for the Shahi litchi grown in the orchards that ring the town — a distinctive, intensely fragrant variety with Geographical Indication protection, harvested each summer and shipped across the country. The city itself functions mainly as a transport and market hub for the wider Tirhut region, with a busy central bazaar and colonial-era institutional buildings reflecting its 19th-century growth as an administrative centre.

For most travellers, Muzaffarpur serves as a practical stopover or base for exploring the wider North Bihar region — including the litchi orchards themselves during the short May–June harvest season — rather than a heritage destination in its own right.

Developed significantly under British administration in the 19th century as a district headquarters, Muzaffarpur's litchi cultivation dates back to that colonial period and has since become the region's defining agricultural export.

Muzaffarpur has its own railway station and is about 3 hours by road from Patna.