Bihar Cabinet approves allotment of Patna Metro work to DMRC

The Bihar Cabinet on Tuesday approved the allotment of Patna Metro Rail Project work to Delhi Metro Rail Corporation (DMRC), an official said.

The cabinet allotted the Patna Metro work to DMRC on nomination basis which will complete the work on "Deposit Work Method" at a project cost of Rs 482.87 crore, Cabinet Secretariat Department's Principal Secretary Sanjay Kumar told reporters here.

"It is expected that the construction work of Patna Metro will begin by the end of this year by completing tendering process," Kumar said adding that the metro rail envisages two corridors in the first phase.

The entire metro project in the first phase will be completed within five years, he said.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi on February 17, 2019 laid the foundation stone for the Patna Metro Rail Project.

The Bihar cabinet had on October 9, 2018 paved the way for rolling out metro rail in Patna as it approved the "Detailed Project Report (DPR)" and sent it for Centre's approval.

Of the two corridors in the first phase, the first corridor will be between Saguna Mor-Bailey Road-Patna Junction-Mithapur bus stand while the second corridor will be from Patna junction to proposed bus stand at Bairiya on Patna-Gaya road.

The cabinet also gave its nod to the Social Welfare Department's proposal to create various types of 1,465 regular technical posts to run "State Society For Ultra Poor and Social Welfare" scheme in the department, the principal secretary said.

Among the various posts which have been created by the department are - Centre Manager (63), senior clerk (63), Case Manager (101), senior physiotherapist (101), Occupational therapist (101), physiotherapist (139), Mobility instructor (101), Audiologist cum speech-language pathologist (101), Clinical psychologist, he said.

It also rechristened "Malaria Inspector" as "Vector Disease Control Officer", Kumar said.

It also gave its nod to the health department's proposal to create one post of a "speech pathologist-cum- audiologist" and that of an "audiographer" in all the 36 sadar hospitals of the state, he said.

The cabinet also gave its nod to create 303 different posts in Panchayat Raj department following the reorganisation of "Bihar Panchayat Service", Kumar said.

The various posts created include - 188 posts of Block Panchayat Raj Officer, 58 posts of lecturer at Mukhiya Sarpanch Training Institute/District Panchayat Raj Training Institute, 38 posts of additional chief executive officer in district boards and 19 posts of principals and assistant director Mukhiya Sarpanch Training Institute/District Panchayat Raj Training Institute, State Level Research and Training Institute.

A total of 15 decisions were taken on Tuesday's cabinet meeting chaired by Chief Minister Nitish Kumar.