CCEA approves new 4-lane bridge on Kosi river in Bihar

The Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs (CCEA) on Thursday approved the construction of the 6.93 km-long four-lane bridge at Phulaut in Bihar that would cut down the distance between Phulaut to Bihpur from 72 km to 12 km.

"The CCEA, chaired by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, approved the project for construction of 6.930 km-long four-lane bridge at Phulaut in Bihar," Union Law Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad told the media here.

He said currently there is a 10 km-long missing link between Phulaut and Bihpur on NH-106 and falling in the catchment area of the Kosi river.

"Presently, the traffic from Phulaut to Bihpur requires to take a detour of approximately 72 km. On construction of the new four-Lane bridge across the Kosi river under this project, the distance between Phulaut and Bihpur shall be reduced to only 12 km," he said.

He said that the new bridge will generate direct employment of about 2.19 lakh man-days during the construction.

The construction of this bridge would fill the existing 30 km-long gap between Udakishanganj and Bihpur on National Highway Number 106 in Bihar, which will provide through connectivity between Nepal/North Bihar/East-West Corridor (passing through NH-57) and South Bihar/Jharkhand/Golden Quadrilateral (passing through NH-2), besides full utilization of National Highway Number-31.

The Minister said the CCEA also cleared the decks for rehabilitation and upgradation of the existing Birpur-Bihpur section of National Highway-106 from Km 106 to Km 136 to 'Two-lane with Paved Shoulder' in Bihar at a capital cost of Rs 1,478.40 crore.

"The construction period for the project is three years and is likely to be completed by June, 2022," he said.

Highlighting the requirement of the two-lane road, Prasad said presently the existing NH is having single or intermediate lane configuration with poor road geometry, and therefore the average speed on the highway is below 20 km per hour.

"With the upgradation of the highway to two-lane with paved shoulder configuration and construction of bridge on the missing link, the travel speed would increase to the design speed of about 100 km per hour," he added.

--IANS

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