PATNA, Oct 26: The NDA has focused on good roads as they are key to driving development and ensuring good governance, Bihar’s Road Construction Minister Nitin Nabin asserted, as he expressed confidence that the ruling alliance will retain power in the state and focus next on bringing investment and creating employment.
With progress in road and highway development highlighted by the NDA as a major poll issue, the BJP leader said that connectivity was the main challenge the NDA sought to address after coming to power in 2005.
“In 2005, when the NDA government was formed in Bihar, connectivity was a big challenge. If you think about law and order, if you think of development, roads are the first phase of development in any state. And I believe that our Chief Minister Nitish Kumar and our then Minister Nand Kishore did well,” Nabin said in an interview with PTI.
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He said the defunct ‘Pul Nirman Nigam’ was revived, and road infrastructure was given priority.
“Today, we have reached a point after 20 years that everyone is talking about the roads of Bihar. Earlier, there was only one Mahatma Gandhi Setu bridge on the Ganga, connecting north and south Bihar. Today, at least half a dozen bridges — almost 42 lanes of bridges — are being built,” he said.
“There is a bridge on the Ganga every 40 km…. The prime minister gave special attention to Bihar. Overall, we got support of Rs. 4 lakh crore from the Centre for improving road infrastructure in Bihar,” he said.
Nabin also said the state was a pioneer in a policy for road maintenance after five years of construction.
“We have been maintaining roads of 13,000 km since the last 10 years. And now, when we are going to the next phase, we are going for maintenance of 20,000 kms,” he said.
He said a policy has been made for the maintenance of bridges. “Now we are the first state in the country to have a bridge maintenance policy,” he said.
The minister said they have come up with QR codes for bridges, which can be scanned by anyone and will provide all relevant information about the construction, history and maintenance of the bridge. He said MoUs have been signed with IIT-Delhi and IIT-Patna for making health cards for the bridges.
“It is the era of expressways. We are making many expressways with central assistance, like the Purnia Expressway, Raxaul-Haldia, and Gorakhpur-Siliguri Expressway.
“Gorakhpur-Siliguri Expressway will be the lifeline of North Bihar; Patna’s Marine Drive is also being talked about in every part of the country,” he said.
“We can say that today, the road infrastructure of Bihar is at a different level on the national scale.”
Asked about the opposition’s charge that the highways and expressways have not helped the poor, he said, “When roads are made, the income of that area increases. The economic value of that land increases. Growth is directly proportional to the infrastructure.”
“Those who say that nothing has changed should remember how Rajendra Setu looked in the lantern (RJD’s poll symbol) era.
“Today, there is a six-lane bridge in Aunta-Simari; Mahatma Gandhi Setu is the same bridge, which people used to call the white elephant. It was always under repair. Today, the old four-lane and the new six-lane bridge have been made,” he said.
Nabin stressed that women empowerment has also been a key reform in the NDA rule, calling it the biggest indicator of change.
“But, if you look at it in the light of a lantern, you will not be able to see it. For that, you will have to come in the light of an LED,” he said.
Asked about the vision for Bihar if the NDA returns to power, he said, “Bihar is moving ahead with a vision for 2047. Our vision is that by 2047, there should not be any village that does not have a four-lane road within 40 km,” he said.
“Every district will have local industrialisation, a local product. Today, we have made a land bank on 15,000 acres of land in different segments of Bihar. We have improved the investment policy,” he said.
“If we give land in any area, then we have to give job security. Big investment is coming. If we have big investments, the biggest asset of Bihar is manpower, which no state has. People of Bihar will get employment here; you can imagine how Bihar would grow,” Nabin said. (PTI)
