Roads in Bihar

The project will be executed by Bihar Rajya Pul Nirman Nigam Ltd and will connect Gopalgand with West Champaran districts. The bridge will redcue the distance between Gopalganj and Bettiah by 87 kms. In the absence of the bridge the local people have to rely on boat, which is risky, especially during monsoon. The vehicular traffic at present takes the route via NH 28 and cross Gandak at Dumaria Ghat.

The proposed bridge over Gandak would provide link between East Champaran district and eastern UP via Gopalganj. Besides, West Champaran district would also get an additional route to east UP.

According to the general manager of NABARD, M M Mishra, the bridge would link 38 villages and 12 marketing centres. About 1.80 lakh people would be directly benefited by the bridge. Besides, it would give a boost to the economy of the region.

The total cost of the bridge would be Rs 317.99 crore and the share of the state government will be Rs 82.49 crore. This is the biggest project for the Bihar Rajya Pul Nirman Nigam. The project is likely to start from October.

The proposed bridge will have 25 spans of 60 metres each. It will have well-type foundation and the super-structure will be pre-stressed box grider type.

Speaking at the Conference of the Ministers-in-Charge of Highways in New Delhi on Wednesday he said that NH-2C, NH-99 and NH-110 have been declared naxal-affected highways. NH-2C (Dehri-Akbarpur-Jadnnathpur-Jardag), NH-99 (Dobhi to Jharkhand border) and NH-110 (Bihar Sharif-Ekangarsarai-Jehanabad-Arval) are respectively of 105 km, 20 km and 90 km. He stressed that without a special fund fast communication in these naxal affected areas are not possible.

The Minister called for the upgradation of some state highways into National Highways. They are Ara-Sasaram Road, Darbhanga-Kamtol-Basaitha-Madhuban Road, Patna to Ara, Koilwar - Sandesh - Sahar - Dehri - Tilauthu - Chutia, (5) Kaluwahi - Khajauli-Sakti - Kamala Bandh-Bhaskora-Singhveri Chauk, Sasaram-Chausa-Buxar, and Khagaul-Bihta road.

The plan includes building a three-lane flyover from the Nageshwar Colony to the water tank past A. N. College on Boring Road, and another one from Bailey Road to Sheikhpura.

Both bridges are expected to ease traffic on the existing roads while also cutting down on drive time due to limited exits on both flyovers, officials said.

The role of these contractors in executing the project assumes significance because the RCD recently rescinded its agreement with Tantia Construction Private Limited for the execution of the project.

The move has thrown up a big question before Patna residents as most of the roads, to be constructed under the project, are yet to be completed despite commencement of work on these roads in 2007. With the rains just a month away, it can be anybody's guess how tough it would be to commute on these roads once it starts pouring.

RCD, however, has allayed the fears of residents claiming the work on eight major roads would be completed well before the rainy season and the rest of the roads would also be made motorable well in time.

"With two hot-mix plants already in place and one to come up soon, RCD will encourage the new contractors to use these plants for meeting the standard of the quality of the work," said Shivendra Pasi, RCD's central circle superintending engineer. He said the tender for the leftover work would be floated soon.

Of the total demand of whopping Rs 208.65 crore, the state plans to spend Rs 174 crore on the plan head. The state proposes to spend the remaining Rs 34.65 crore on exigencies under the non-plan head in the 2008-09 fiscal.

The demand of the state road construction department is almost three times higher than total utilisation of only Rs 71 crore in the 2007-08 fiscal for the upkeep of national highways.

"Rs 208.65 crore is planned to be utilised for upgradation and upkeep of different stretches of the 13 national highways passing through the state. Focus has been given on the upkeep of NH-31 (from Barhi to Bihar border) and NH-33 (from Barhi to Bahragora in Orissa border)," said Bishnu Ram, the chief engineer of the NH wing.

A team of the state's national highway-wing, led by road construction department secretary N.N. Sinha, would take part in a crucial meeting with the officials of the Union Ministry of Road Transport and Highways in Delhi tomorrow.

All superintending and executive engineers of the seven national highway divisions would accompany Sinha to the meet. Besides Ram, two National Highways Authority of India (NHAI) officials R.P. Indoria and A. Lakra are also expected to be present in tomorrow's meeting.

Apart from the demand for funds, important issues like pending four-lane project of the lifeline of Jharkhand NH-33 from Barhi to Bahragora via Jamshedpur, construction of the stretch of Ranchi-Vijayawada corridor falling in Jharkhand would be taken up in the meeting.

"There are close to 1,050 km of NHs that are pending upgradation in the state, although approved. Under NHDP-III itself, there are close to 900 km of NHs that were approved for four-laning about four years ago and these include some strategic linkages along the Indo-Nepal border. But progress on these toll-based projects is very slow, mainly because of an investor-unfriendly atmosphere. The 128-km long Patna-Muzaffarpur section alone has gone to bids twice, but not a single party is interested," a senior official from the Ministry of Shipping, Road Transport & Highways told The Indian Express.

The over 900 km of toll-based four-laned National Highways under NHDP-III include NH-19 and NH-77 linking Patna to Muzaffarpur via Hajipur, besides important links along the Indo-Nepal border between Forbesganj and Jogbani (NH-57A), and Piprakothi-Motihari-Raxaul (NH-28A) which take care of 90 per cent of trade with Nepal. Similarly, the other NHDP-III projects along the Patna-Purnia section on NH-30 and NH-31 are an important link to the North-East.

In Parliament, the Ministry admitted that bids were invited for the Patna-Muzaffarpur section in June 2005 and then again in June 2007 on the basis of the new Model Concession Agreement (MCA). With no takers, the Government is considering changing the financial model to BOT (build-operate-transfer) annuity in which contractors will have to pay the construction cost upfront and the client (NHAI) will return it in pre-decided annuities. As per Government policy, all road projects should be executed on the BOT toll model.

"We will probably have to take the BOT annuity route for this. Basically, there are no takers for a toll-based project in Bihar because contractors feel they may not be able to recover the cost through toll, owing to the political and law and order situation in the state. So, although work on other projects apart from NH-19 and NH-77 are in various stages, it seems quite unlikely that toll-based projects will attract investors there," the official said.

The special task force on Bihar, in its report to the Planning Commission in October 2007, had also pointed out that the state's performance in the road sector has been "constrained due to lack of good contractors and poor response, necessitating re-tendering".

The report said that "local political risk is perceived to be very high in Bihar, which has kept road developers away". It added that the roads in Bihar are "mostly in a bad state" with 45 per cent unpaved, and 70 per cent of the inhabited areas still not connected with motorable roads.

With 27 National Highways criss-crossing it, Bihar has 3,629 km of NH length with the maximum length under NHDP-III that envisages connectivity to places of economic and social significance.

"The government has sought loans from the World Bank. We are optimistic," Rural Development Minister Narendra Narain Yadav said Sunday.

Yadav said the districts where the roads will come up are Gaya, Jehanabad, Arwal, Aurangabad and Patna.

"The government plans to construct 351 km of rural roads at an estimated cost of Rs.1.44 billion," said Yadav.

In the last few years, whenever the government attempted to build rural roads, Maoist guerrillas created trouble and targeted officials, contractors and workers engaged in the task.

The fear of Maoists has put a stop to road construction in many rural areas.

The steel minister, Ram Vilas Paswan, would distribute 200 steel bullock-carts each among the farmers of Bihar and Jharkhand.

The steel bullock carts will have wheels with tyres and will be much lighter 220 to 250 kilo than traditional wooden bullock-carts, which weigh between 500 and 750 kilo. Each steel bullock-carts would cost Rs 15,000, almost the same price as the wooden one. Thus the total cost of 400 bullock-carts would be Rs 60 lakh.

For example, work on the NH 31 stretch between Purnea and Gayakota started in December 1999. The original date of completion of the project was March 2002 but even after six years, it is not finished yet, the data reflected.

The delay was due to problems associated with land acquisition, sifting of utilities, delay in obtaining clearances for cutting of trees, poor performances by some contractors and law and order problems in initial stages of implementation.

Being implemented under the National e-governance programme (NEGP), this information highway has two components G2G (government to government) and G2C (government to citizen). While state wide area network (SWAN) has been developed for the G2G services, common service centre (CSC) will be developed under the G2C component.

SWAN will work as the backbone of this information super highway and 2 Mbps leased lines hired from the BSNL will allow communication between the state headquarters and the far-flung block offices in real time. This will also allow to have the facility of video conferencing. As SWAN will work through leased lines, high speed data transfer too would be possible once its functioning starts in full swing.

As the NEGP envisages developing only a vertical link with block offices being the last point of communication, the state government has added one horizontal component as well in its upcoming information super highway and there are plans to take this link down to the panchayat level on the one hand and to develop connectivity between various offices on the other. There are also plans to use widescale use of Wi-Fi and Wi Max technologies for glitch free net connectivity at this level.

The decision was taken at a meeting of the Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs (CCEA) on Wednesday as there was no response for the tender notice for the toll mode.

Finance Minister P Chidambaram said that NHAI Board had been authorised to take decision with regard to award of work on BOT (Annuity) mode. The approval would enable the award of project and facilitate NHDP Phase-III.

IRCON one of the five Central agencies involved in building rural roads un der the Prime Minister's Gram Sadak Yojna (PMGSY) - has cited threat from Naxals as a reason for slow progress in Bihar. However, statistics tell a different story. The statement showing progress of work shows that it is comparatively better in Naxal affected districts and dismal in those not affected by the terror.

The progress of work till November 30 in the four worse-hit districts of the state - Arwal, Aurangabad, Gaya and Jehanabad - was 19.77 per cent, 37.76 per cent, 30.94 per cent and 22.13 per cent re spectively. In comparison, the progress in districts where there's no Naxal terror Gopalgunj, Saran and Siwan - was poor at 12.15 per cent, 22.15 per cent and 12.07 per cent respectively. The overall progress in the state remained dismal with only 1509.62 km length of the road completed till November, out of sanctioned 12,825.36 km. In the case of those sanctioned a year back, the progress was poor with only 1,509 km completed out of 5,871 km. In percentage terms, it was a little over 25 per cent.

Tolling was so far confined to fourand six-lane highways and expressways where upgradation work has been completed. But soon, you would be stopping at toll plazas even on incomplete stretches of highways that link the four metros -- Delhi, Mumbai, Kolkata and Chennai.

Paid Ride

• Toll plazas to come up on 50-60km stretches, even on incomplete highways linking Delhi, Mumbai, Kolkata and Chennai
  
• You'll pay about 40 paise per km for these two-lane highways with paved shoulders and signages
  
• Toll revenue to go towards upgrading 40,000km of highways by 2015

Move aimed to attract funds for two-lane roads

The 12-metre wide bridge will be constructed on the Bhagalpur-Mirzachoui section of National Highway-80, an official release on Tuesday said.

The project has been approved by Union Shipping, Road Trasnport and Highways Minister T.R. Baalu.

The bridge will replace the existing 40-year-old screw-pile bridge as it is not capable to withstand the present day volume of traffic on the National Highway.

The bridges built at the cost of Rs. 25 lakh each for a total cost of over Rs. 60 crore under the Chief Minister Bridge Building scheme are in the final phase of completion and would open for traffic come November, said Yadav at a press conference in Patna.

Under this scheme, 15 bridges have been built in Muzaffarpur district, 8 in Eastern Champaran district, 6 in Vaishali, 5 each in Patna and Araria districts, 4 in Sitamarhi, 3 in Darbhanga, two each in Rohtas, Chhapra, Sheohar, Bhojpur, and Saharsa districts, and one each in Buxar, Gopalganj, Western Champaran, Bhabhua, Aurangabad, Madhepuram, Banka, Sheikhpura, Kishanganj, Purnia, Katihar, Katihar, and Supaul.

In view of the bloated crowd due to Durga Puja festivities, the administration has temporarily opened the section of the bridge that leads to the Patna Junction, Amrit said.

The bridge will remain open till Monday after which it will once again be closed to public until its official opening on January 1, he said.

Once opened for all, the one-way bridge, from northern end to the Chiraiyantand area and from the southern end to Exhibition Road, promises to reduce traffic congestion that affects hundreds of thousands of people on a daily basis on Rajendra Nagar bridge and other links connecting Kankarbagh to the metro Patna

In view of the bloated crowd due to Durga Puja festivities, the administration has temporarily opened the section of the bridge that leads to the Patna Junction, Amrit said.

The bridge will remain open till Monday after which it will once again be closed to public until its official opening on January 1, he said.

Once opened for all, the one-way bridge, from northern end to the Chiraiyantand area and from the southern end to Exhibition Road, promises to reduce traffic congestion that affects hundreds of thousands of people on a daily basis on Rajendra Nagar bridge and other links connecting Kankarbagh to the metro Patna

The bridges built at the cost of Rs. 25 lakh each for a total cost of over Rs. 60 crore under the Chief Minister Bridge Building scheme are in the final phase of completion and would open for traffic come November, said Yadav at a press conference in Patna.

Under this scheme, 15 bridges have been built in Muzaffarpur district, 8 in Eastern Champaran district, 6 in Vaishali, 5 each in Patna and Araria districts, 4 in Sitamarhi, 3 in Darbhanga, two each in Rohtas, Chhapra, Sheohar, Bhojpur, and Saharsa districts, and one each in Buxar, Gopalganj, Western Champaran, Bhabhua, Aurangabad, Madhepuram, Banka, Sheikhpura, Kishanganj, Purnia, Katihar, Katihar, and Supaul.

The committee would be led by the chief engineer of the Road Construction department and has been formed to suggest ways to ease traffic in the metro Patna and how to eliminate bottlenecks on roads that connect the city with a number of satellite towns, officials said on Friday.

Yadav, the Road Construction Minister, said that the previous plan to build a number of flyovers in Patna has, at least for now, been put on hold except for the one between the Tiwari Bechar petrol pump and Chiraiyantand Bridge.

The administration, however, is now considering building of a ring road around Bailey Road and Danapur that would drastically cut down traffic on the busy Bailey Road, that Yadav, on Thursday, said was in worse condition than ever before.

The new plan also includes strengthening of the road in Kankarbagh that connects the Old Bypass Road to the New Bypass Road, and widening of the road between Gai Ghat and Rajendra Nagar Stadium.

Speaking at a seminar organized by the Indian Oil Corporation on Saturday night he announced that by 2010 a total of 4,500 km new roads will be constructed at an estimated cost of Rs 18,000 crores. The next assembly election is also due in 2010.

The minister said that the Nitish Kumar government, after assuming office about two years ago, had given top priority to road construction projects. As such the government had prepared a road map for the construction of 4,500 km of new roads and state highways in different parts of the state. He said the majority of fund would come from leading lending agencies like the Asian Development Bank (ADB) and the Japan Bank of International Cooperation (JBIC). The roads, he said, would be of the global standard.

Yadav claimed that about 716 km of the 4,500 km roads network had already been completed at a cost of Rs 1,600 crores, while work for the remaining portion was in progress.