Nitish gives Rs 19,500-cr push to state infrastructure

Last week PM announced sanctioning Rs 1.25 lakh cr package for Bihar

Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar today laid foundation stones, inaugurated and dedicated development projects valued altogether at Rs 19,500 crore including a Rs 5,000 crore bridge over the Ganga near Patna.

Today's programme came five days after Prime Minister Narendra Modi announced sanctioning of a whopping Rs 1.25 lakh crore package for the poll-bound state.

The six-lane, 9.76 km bridge will be a cable-stayed one, and is supposed to be the longest river bridge in the country on completion. In addition, it will have a combined approach of 13 km on its either ends.

The bridge will run parallel to the existing Mahatma Gandhi Setu and connect NH 30 near Kachchi Dargah near here and NH 103 near Biddupur in Vaishali district.

The bridge will connect the huge Raghopur riverine land in Vaishali which has always been difficult to access and has a population of over 1 lakh.

"This is going to be a very big project and the foundation stone has been laid after completing all measures. We have taken a loan of Rs 3,000 crore for it from Asian Development Bank. The state government will provide the remaining Rs 2,000 crore," Kumar said on the occasion.

"We had been working for it since 2010, when I had visited Raghopur to campaign for Assembly polls and the people there demanded a bridge," he said.

On the delay in the much-needed bridge as the existing Mahatma Gandhi Setu is in a dilapidated condition, Kumar said initially it was to be made on PPP model, but interest of investors decreased and arranging funds became a problem.

"We then thought that the state government will make it and tried hard for it, but were unable to get a positive response from the Centre. Now all impediments to it are gone and it will be constructed," he said.