Patna: All government and private schools re-opened in this Bihar capital on Monday, after remaining closed for more than 20 days due to an intense cold wave.

There was some respite from the biting cold in Patna as the state capital recorded a minimum temperature of 7 degrees Celsius. The district administration had late on Sunday, ordered reopening of schools with new timings.

"Authorities ordered all the schools to hold classes from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. in place of early morning classes," district official S. Sharma said.

Patna District Magistrate Jitendra Kumar Sinha said concerned officials were directed to ensure that new timings were adhered to by schools.

He said the timings were changed keeping in view the cold weather early morning.

The schools were closed until January 3 for Christmas and New Year holidays and were scheduled to re-open on January 4. However, due to the cold wave, the Bihar government extended the closure until last week.

"All public and private schools remained closed as the intense cold forced the government to extend the closure of schools four times in the past three weeks. It has hit school education," said Amit Singh, father of a student.

The cold wave has claimed nearly 100 lives in Bihar in the past three weeks. Dense fog disrupted air and rail services. IANS