Center to bear cost of key stretch of land for Patna outer ring road project

The National Highways Authority of India (NHAI) is building the ring road, barring the Kachhi Dargah-Bidupur six-lane bridge on the river Ganga.

Bihar’s State road construction department’s (RDC) bid to build an outer ring road around the capital city received a boost after the Central government agreed to bear the expense for purchasing the land required to build a 14-km long four-lane road from Ram Nagar to Kachhi Dargah.

This was a crucial stretch of the 130km-long ring road project, being executed at the cost of around Rs 15,000 crores. (HT Photo)

This was a crucial stretch of the 130km-long ring road project, being executed at the cost of around Rs 15,000 crore, for which the RDC was looking for financial support to acquire the required portion of land.

The National Highways Authority of India (NHAI) is building the ring road, barring the Kachhi Dargah-Bidupur six-lane bridge on the river Ganga. Besides Kachhi Dargah-Bidupur bridge, another four-lane bridge on the river has been proposed near Danapur. While the Central government has decided to bear the civil cost of the entire project, the State government was supposed to bear the expenses for land acquisition.

A senior officer of the RCD said that the Central government had agreed to spend Rs 800- Rs 1000 crore on purchasing the land from farmers and other agencies. “As this is a greenfield project, the farmers need to be taken in confidence for selling their land as per the prevalent land acquisition act,” the officer said.

The NHAI has already started the process of building 39-km long, four/six lane road between Kanhauli in Bihta and Ram Nagar in southern Patna, which will be the first phase of the ring road project, which has been sanctioned under the PM’s special package to Bihar in 2014. A sum of Rs 823 crore would be spent on the first phase.

Additional chief secretary, RCD, Amrit Lal Meena said the process of land acquisition between Ram Nagar and Kachhi Dargah would be completed soon, as the modalities for financial support from the Centre had been stipulated for the project.

As proposed, the ring road will be connected with Patna-Ara stretch of national highway 30 at Bihta, and those willing to go towards Begusarai or Gaya need not pass through the dense traffic in the capital city, once the ring road is complete in the next three years, said a senior RDC officer.

The proposed alignment of the ring road passes through Bihta, Naubatpur, Dumri, Beldari Chak, Ram Nagar, Kacchi Dargah (all located in Patna), Bidupur (Vaishali) Asitpur, Nayagaon, Dighwara (Saran), Shepur and Bihta (Patna district).

Bihar State Road Development Corporation (BSRDC) managing director Sanjay Agrawal said the construction of the 22.7km-long Kachhi Dargah-Bidupur bridge connecting Patna to Vaishali was going on in full swing. “The project would be complete by the end of next year, if everything goes well with the plan,” said Agrawal.