News Detail

<p style="text-align:justify"><span style="color:#696969"><span style="font-size:11px"><span style="font-family:arial">The state road construction department (RCD) is planning to have a bridge maintenance policy on the lines of road maintenance policy. The move follows chief minister Nitish Kumar&#39;s suggestion that the state should have a policy for maintenance of the bridges like the railways has its bridge engineering division.</span></span></span></p> <p style="text-align:justify"><span style="color:#696969"><span style="font-size:11px"><span style="font-family:arial">The RCD has constructed 19,000 Km of roads and over 12,000 bridges and culverts since 2006. The government is now focusing on the maintenance of these roads and bridges because there has been no such policy so far. Even the Gandhi Setu on the Ganga, the state&#39;s lifeline that connects north with the rest of Bihar, is in bad shape due to poor maintenance.</span></span></span></p> <p style="text-align:justify"><span style="color:#696969"><span style="font-size:11px"><span style="font-family:arial">Through videoconference on Tuesday, Kumar flagged off work on construction of 287 Km of roads under Bihar State Highways Project-II in five districts. He also laid stones of four roads measuring altogether 67 Km and 16 bridges which are to be constructed at an estimated cost of INR 228 crore and INR 221 crore respectively. The state government has secured financial assistance for these projects from Asian Development Bank (ADB).</span></span></span></p> <p style="text-align:justify"><span style="color:#696969"><span style="font-size:11px"><span style="font-family:arial">&quot;Only the construction of roads and bridges is not important. Their maintenance is equally important. The work culture in Bihar has changed a lot,&quot; Kumar said and directed the RCD to further minimize the time consumption to reach the state capital from any place in the state from six hours since a network of roads and bridges has already come up and reduced the distance.</span></span></span></p> <p style="text-align:justify"><span style="color:#696969"><span style="font-size:11px"><span style="font-family:arial">Recalling the jokes about bad roads in Bihar before 2005, he said the situation was now just opposite and perception across the country has changed. He said a top banker hailing from Bihar was recently told by a driver in a south Indian city that if he wanted to see good roads, he should go to Bihar. He said even the potholed national highways were repaired with funds from the state and the Centre had not reimbursed INR 997 crore so far.</span></span></span></p> <p style="text-align:justify"><span style="color:#696969"><span style="font-size:11px"><span style="font-family:arial">Thanking the ADB and other financial bodies for providing loans for infrastructure development in the state, the CM announced that the foundation of mega bridges on the Gandak, Sone and Ganga would be laid soon. &quot;By constructing bridges, we not only bridge the distance but also build bridges of faith and harmony,&quot; said the CM.</span></span></span></p> <p style="text-align:justify"><span style="color:#696969"><span style="font-size:11px"><span style="font-family:arial">Earlier, RCD secretary Pratyaya Amrit said there was lack of financial aid for constructing roads and bridges before 2005. With the assistance of the ADB under Bihar State Highways Project-I, seven projects have been completed while works worth INR 1646 crore were going on under Project-II.</span></span></span></p> <p style="text-align:justify"><span style="color:#696969"><span style="font-size:11px"><span style="font-family:arial">Source-On Request</span></span></span></p>