Road construction dept gets ₹7,405cr, share dips marginally by 0.02%

A sum of ₹18,716.97 crore has been allocated for the road sector (including those to be built by the rural works department) in 2026-27 fiscal as compared to ₹17,908.18 crore in the current fiscal (2025-26).

The percentage share of road construction department (RCD) in the annual budget for 2026-27 has dipped by 0.02% vis-a-vis last fiscal year, even as overall allocation of the department’s budget has been hiked to ₹7,404.79 crore for the coming fiscal as compared to ₹6,806 crore in the current fiscal. The expenditure included the spendings on new schemes and establishment and committed expenditure, which include payment of salary.

A view of an under construction six-lane bridge parallel to JP Setu across river Ganga at Digha in Patna on Tuesday. (Santosh Kumar/HT)

A section of the officials attributed the minor deviation in allocation to the schemes sanctioned in the past few years, which saw significant boost in construction of greenfield roads, mainly those of the expressways and national highways. “Construction of a number of road projects are going on, while land acquisition for several others are undergoing,” said RCD minister Dilip Jaiswal, talking to media persons outside the state legislature premises on Tuesday after the finance minister Bijendra Prasad Yadav laid ₹3.47 lakh crore annual budget in the state legislature.

As per the annual budget, a sum of ₹18,716.97 crore has been allocated for the road sector (including those to be built by the rural works department) in 2026-27 fiscal as compared to ₹17,908.18 crore in the current fiscal (2025-26).

The annual budget has proposed allocation of ₹5,869.38 crore (4.80% of the total budget outlay) under the scheme head vis-a-vis ₹5,257.55 crore in the current financial year. Of the total allocation, ₹3,243 crore has been earmarked for construction of roads, ₹925 crore for bridge construction and ₹372 crore for major roads. There is, however, no change in the amount to be spent on maintenance, which stands at ₹3,000 crore.

A senior officer of the department said that the government has proposed to undertake a structural safety audit of 85 major bridges, for which a memorandum of understanding (MoU) with the IIT, Delhi, and IIT, Patna, has been signed last year.

In 2025-26, the 20.50-km elevated JP Ganga Path from Kangan Ghat to Digha Ghat in Patna was fully operationalised from west to east. The state’s first double-decker flyover and the Shaheed War Memorial Chowk were also dedicated to the public. The Mithapur-Mahuli elevated path project was dedicated from Bhuptipur to Punu, while the Kachchi Dargah-Bidupur bridge section from Patna to Radhopur Ansh was also inaugurated.

During the past year, projects worth a total of ₹38,732.54 crore, comprising 266 roads and bridges, were sanctioned. Of these, 137 projects worth ₹23,974.97 crore fall under the Yatra head, while the remaining 129 projects worth ₹14,757.57 crore are other schemes. Among the sanctioned projects, three major Ganga Path stretches — Digha-Bihta-Koilwar (35.65 km), Munger (Sakiyabad)-Bariyarpur-Dharghat-Sultanganj (42 km) and Sultanganj-Bhagalpur-Sabour (40.80 km) — will be executed for the first time under the Hybrid Annuity Model (HAM).

Along with new bridge construction, the state has brought into force the “Bihar Rajya Pul Prabandhan evam Sandharan Niti 2025” for systematic upkeep and better management of existing bridges. Under the policy, 624 bridges longer than 60 metres have been identified for maintenance and rehabilitation by the Bihar Rajya Pul Nirman Nigam through the Bridge Maintenance Bidding Document (BMBD). Works on bridges longer than 250 metres have already begun under the new policy.

Several centrally-sponsored expressways are under construction for the state’s overall development: Varanasi-Kolkata, Gorakhpur-Siliguri, Raxaul-Haldia and Patna-Purnia. The Centre has also provided additional funding for the Ramjanaki Marg extension from the Sitamarhi border.

Among the state’s own flagship projects, work is progressing on the Danapur-Bihta-Koilwar elevated corridor, the Aams-Darbhanga greenfield expressway, the Munger-Mirza Chowki four-lane road, the six-lane bridge between Digwara and Sherpur on the Ganga, the four-lane parallel bridge to Mahatma Gandhi Setu and the six-lane parallel bridge to JP Setu.

Other key projects moving ahead include Phase-2 of the Kachchi Dargah-Bidupur six-lane Ganga bridge, the ultimate Hajipur-Mahnar section (NH-122B) to Chaksikandar (NH-322), Phase-3 of the “Radhopur Diyara, Vaishali, from Hajipur-Mahnar” road, the JP Ganga Path from Patna Ghat Sapkalna (near Patna Sahib railway station), the Mithapur-Sipara elevated corridor and Sipara ROB. Under public-private partnership (PPP), the Bakhtiyarpur-Tajpur high path with a four-lane bridge over the Ganga (51 km) is also under construction.

All existing single-lane developed roads will be progressively upgraded to two lanes. Under the Saat Nishchay-3 (2025-30) programme, five new expressways are planned to provide ultimate world-class connectivity.