Gadkari inaugurates 15 National Highway projects in Bihar worth over Rs 13,500 cr

New Delhi, Jun 8: Union Minister for Road Transport and Highways Nitin Gadkari inaugurated and laid foundation stones of 15 National Highway projects in Patna and Hajipur in Bihar with a total cost of Rs.13,585 crore.

Speaking at the event, the Union Minister said that the Mahatma Gandhi Setu (MG Setu) is the lifeline of Bihar that connects North Bihar with South Bihar. "With this superstructure replacement project, the time taken to cross Mahatma Gandhi Setu has been reduced from 2 to 3 hours to 5 to 10 minutes,"

He said the Chhapra-Gopalganj section being 2-lane with 4 bypasses will allow the traffic of the highway to pass through the bypass and the city will get rid of traffic jams.

The Minister said the route from Umagaon will directly connect the religious places of Uchhaith Bhagbati and Mahishi Tarapith. Aurangabad - Chordaha section 6-lane road will improve the connectivity of Bihar with Uttar Pradesh, Jharkhand and West Bengal.

The Munger - Bhagalpur - Mirzachowki section 4-lane greenfield road will facilitate the farmers of the region to deliver their crop across the country, which will increase the income of the farmers, he added.
Gadkari said the 2-lane road being built on NH-80 will facilitate connectivity between Bihar, Sahibganj and Assam connecting with the Inland Waterways Terminal reducing the logistics cost. He said apart from this, traffic will be facilitated from Begusarai elevated flyover, Jayanagar bypass ROB and long jams of level crossings will be avoided. With the construction of Ara 4-lane road from Kayamnagar, the traffic for Ara will be smooth, he added.

The BJP minister further said that roads are linked to to the prosperity of a state and a country. "There is no doubt that Bihar's road network has seen tremendous improvement in the last few years and I am sure it will improve further. I can say this with confidence that the state's road infrastructure will be at par with that of the US by 2024," Gadkari said.

He quoted former US president John F Kennedy who had said, "American roads are not good because America is rich. America is rich because American roads are good".

"Several mega projects related to Bihar will be completed soon, and the ministry is also in the process of finalising DPRs (detailed project reports) of some projects such as Buddhist, Jain and Ram Janaki-Ayodhya circuits," he said.

Gadkari also appealed to Chief Minister Nitish Kumar to set up industrial clusters and smart cities along the expressways in the state.

The 5,750-metres-long MG Setu was inaugurated in 1982 by the then prime minister Indira Gandhi as the country's longest river bridge. It underwent repairs from 1999 to 2016, when the Centre approved its reconstruction plan.

The entire MG Setu reconstruction project was executed at a cost of Rs 1,742 crore.