Highway projects worth Rs 30,000 cr underway in Bihar: Nitin Gadkari

Highway projects worth Rs 30,000 crore are underway in Bihar, Road Transport and Highways Minister Nitin Gadkari said on Thursday.

The minister was addressing a virtual event after inaugurating Koilwar bridge over river Sone in Bihar, built at a cost of Rs 266 crore.

The three-lane 1.5 km-long structure is part of a six-lane bridge being built in place of the existing 138-year-old two-lane bridge for both rail and road traffic. The bridge is a major road for transport between Bihar and Uttar Pradesh.

"Gadkari informed that road works worth Rs 30,000 crore are ongoing in Bihar. A sum of Rs 4,600 crore has been released for compensation against land acquisitions," the Ministry of Road Transport and Highways said in a statement.

Under the PM's package, which involves 24 projects of 1,459 kms, work is on over 875 kms, the minister said.

Under this, tender for 125 km has been issued and by next March, tenders will be released for another 459 kms, Gadkari added.

Under Central Road Fund (CRF), works worth Rs 2,097 crore have been approved in the last six years in Bihar, against which Rs 1,281 crore has been released till now.

Providing details of the projects, the minister said the 7-km four-lane Koshi bridge worth Rs 1,478 crore is likely to be completed by 2023.

Tender for the 4 km-long Rs 1,110 crore Vikramshila bridge has been issued and construction is likely to be completed in 2024, he said, adding the work on Buxar bridge will be completed by the next year.

"The tender for 6 km Rs 1900 crore Sahibganj bridge connecting Bihar and Jharkhand has been issued, and the construction is scheduled to complete by September 2024. Work on the remaining two-lane bridge over river Ganga in Patna will be completed by next year. A sum of Rs 1,742 crore is being spent on reconstruction of this 5.5 km. bridge," the statement said.

The minister also announced the construction of a new four-lane, 5 km-long bridge over Ganga near the existing bridge in Patna, for which an agreement was signed in October.

"This will be a unique bridge with 242 metre span facilitating movement of large ships under it. He added that the Ramjanaki Marg is being constructed between Ayodhya and Janakpuri (Nepal), of which 240 kms is in Bihar worth Rs 2700 crore. He said, work on 177 kms will be completed by June next year. The balance 63 kms will start in March 2021," the statement said.

The event on Thursday was attended by Chief Minister Nitish Kumar and Union Ministers R K Singh and V K Singh, among others.

Gadkari announced that as proposed by the Chief Minister and local MP Rajiv Pratap Rudy, the ministry has approved a four-lane elevated road from Bharauli (Buxar) to Haidaria for providing connectivity to the Poorvanchal Expressway.

The detailed project report (DPR) for this 17 km-long link road will be ready by June next year.

The ministry has also approved widening of the 70-km Mokama- Munger road, for which DPR will be completed by April next.

Similarly, work on widening of Muzzaffpur-Barauni road will start soon.

"The proposal of four-laning of Khagaria-Purnea road (NH-31) has also been approved and its DPR will be ready by the coming April. The four-laning of Muzaffarpur- Sitamarhi-Sonewarsha road (NH-77), which is part of Ramjanki Marg, will simplify the travel to Jakanpur Dham (Nepal), and its DPR will be ready May next year," the statement said.

Gadkari also referred to the proposals sent by Union Minister R K Singh for development of road network in Bihar.

He said keeping in view his suggestions, a new alignment has been prepared for the Sasaram-Aarah-Patna Greenfield project. On the Aarah Ringroad, 90 per cent work will be covered by the existing three projects, he added.