Bihar, the state where NHAI project manager Satyendra Dubey was killed for whistle blowing on road mafias, has built roads in the state at the cost of $420 million in collaboration with the Asian Development Bank. ADB also plans to release $300 million this month to bring another 1,000 km of rural roads to the standard of state highway.
This is a massive change from five years ago when Bihar ran the dubious distinction of a state with no state highway. The most significant piece of change in the picture is the coming up of 1,054 km of state highways, the Patna-Gaya link being one of them.
Brajesh Prasad, general manager, Bihar State Road Development Corporation said, ?The roads have been designed with a speed specification of 80 km per hour and the average speed of traffic movement within Bihar has gone up from 15 to 50 km per hour.?
?Roads have definitely given a pace to Bihar?s development and Nitish Kumar?s come back shows it,? opined GC Mishra, staff consultant, ADB?s South Asia Transport and Communication Division.
?The process started in 2006 when the Bihar government began the process of upgrade of district and rural roads to state highways. The process is now over and the government has declared that another 827 km of roads would be upgraded to the standard of state highway. A $300-million loan agreement with ADB for implementing the project would be signed on December 21,? Mishra said.
The first tranche of $420 million loan funded 820 km of state highway project costing Rs 1,654 crore. The Bihar government has been able to withdraw $117 from the total agreed loan amount, which is ahead of the estimated target of withdrawing $110 million.
Bihar?s loan utilistion, said Mishra, has become a showcase case for ADB since it is ahead of schedule in taking it reimbursements and might even close the first tranche of loan earlier.