Bridge on Ganga will make party's relations stronger: JD (U)

Lauding the inauguration of the Ara-Chapra and Digha-Sonepur road bridges in Bihar, Janata Dal (United) on Sunday asserted that this city would be gifted with two bridges and expressed hope that the relations JD (U) and the Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) relation will get stronger accordingly.

Speaking to ANI, JD-U leader Rajeev Ranjan said, "The people of Bihar have been waiting since ages for the Ara-Chapra and Digha-Sonepur bridge construction. The city will be gifted with two bridges across the Ganga River. With the inauguration of the road bridges, the Bihar chief minister is also signalling a thaw in the relations between Bihar's ruling 'grand alliance' partners, the JD (U) and the RJD, which have not been on best of terms in recent months".

Further taking a jibe at the Narendra Modi-led government, Ranjan stated that BJP should step back from Bihar concerning the growth and development.

"The construction of this bridge has brought good news and development to the state. One will be named as- Lok Nayak Jai Prakash Narayan and the other as Veer Kunwar Singh. After this, the BJP should step back from Bihar concerning the growth and development towards the state," Ranjan added.

Nitish will inaugurate the two newly built road bridges across the Ganga River today with an aim to cut the distance between towns and villages of south and north Bihar.

Kumar has consented to the inaugural function coinciding with the 70th birthday of RJD chief Lalu Prasad, who will be by his side during the inaugural function, which is being organised even though work on the two bridges is not complete as yet.

The Rs. 800 crore, four- lane and 4.35 km long Ara-Chapra bridge, near Koilwar in south-central Bihar, will directly link the Bhojpuri speaking areas of Bhojpur with Saran in north Bihar, cutting the distance between them to around 20 km from 200 km, via Gandhi setu in Patna, at present.

The bridge, foundation stone of which was laid by Kumar in July 2010, will provide traffic coming from New Delhi and UP through national highway-2, direct access to north Bihar up to the Nepal border, without touching Patna, about 70 km to the east.

The Rs 3,800-crore, 5.25 km road-cum -rail bridge at Digha in Patna, connecting Digha to Sonepur in north Bihar and cleared in 2006 during Prasad's stint as railway minister, will take pressure off the dilapidated Mahatma Gandhi Setu in Patna, which is set to undergo major repairs.

On Sunday, only the road portion of the Digha-Sonepur bridge will see its formal inauguration. The railways portion of the bridge was opened to traffic by minister of state for railways, Manoj Sinha, on February 3, 2016.

Earlier in the week, Construction Minister Tejashwi Yadav said the two bridges will, however, be only partially opened and pledged to open them on his father Lalu Prasad's birthday, as some work on them still remains to be done.

Tejashwi is expected to be at the Chapra end of the Ara-Chapra bridge, while Yadav, will be at the CM's side at the inaugural function, in Patna.