Highways get maximum allocation in PM's Bihar package

The government on Tuesday gave out detail of the Rs.1.25 lakh crore package for Bihar announced by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, with the largest chunk of Rs.54,713 crore going to highways.

The "Prime Minister's Bihar package 2015" was announced by Modi during a rally on Tuesday, as he visited the state ahead of assembly elections there.

According to a release by the PMO, Rs.3,094 crore have been marked for farmers' welfare, Rs. 1,000 crore for eduction, Rs.1,550 crore for skill development, Rs.600 crore for health, Rs.16,130 crore for electricity, Rs.13,820 crore for rural roads, Rs.8,870 crore for railways, Rs.2,700 crore for airports, Rs.449 crore for digital Bihar, Rs.21,476 crore for petroleum and natural gas and Rs.6,00 crore for tourism.

The farmers' welfare components include upgrading of Rajendra Prasad Agriculture University to central university, creation of new research centre, development of fisheries, farm water management and storage capacity, farm mechanisation, seed production systems and construction of new godowns for foodgrains.

The amount to be spent for education includes central university near Bhagalpur and IIM at Bodhgaya. The skill development component includes establishing mega skill university and training one lakh youth.

The health component includes upgrading three medical colleges at Patna, Bhagalpur and Gaya.

The electricity component includes 1,300 MW new power plant at Buxor, electrification of villages under Deen Dayal Upadhyay Gram Vidyut Yojana (sufficient for farms, uninterrupted for homes) and electrification of towns-cities under Integrated Power Development Scheme.

The release said that 22,500 km of rural roads will be built in the state.

The highways component includes 2,775 kms of national highways (four-laning and widening), construction of bridges (across Ganga, Sone, Kosi) and construction of 12 rail overbridges,

The component for railways includes doubling and tripling of 676 kms of railway line and electrification of rail line for 574 km.

The airports component includes construction of new airport at Patna, development of airports at Gaya, Raxaul, Purnea.

The digital Bihar component includes software technology parks, rural BPOs, training centres, 1,000 new mobile towers to increase coverage and quality, 30 WiFi hotspots across prominent tourist places and common service centres to be scaled up from 8,800 to 26,000.

The petroleum and gas component includes expansion of Barauni refinery, new petrochemical plant, construction of gas pipelines, new LPG plants and massive expansion in domestic LPG connections and petrol-diesel pipeline from Raxaul to Nepal.

The tourism component includes development of seven tourist circuits.