As Patna East, the assembly constituency represented by the road construction and tourism minister, Nand Kishore Yadav, virtually remained cut off from Bankipure (or Central Patna) for the second consecutive day on Sunday because the culvert in the middle of the road near Gandhi Chowk in Mahendru caved in, the minister himself is quite hopeful about the condition of the roads in the state.
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.
Source: Bihar Times, 8th Oct,2007
