Eight-lane road to north Bihar

Patna: The stretch of NH-77 that connects Hajipur with Muzaffarpur is set to be made an eight-lane road.

At present, this roughly 50km stretch is a four-lane road that plays a major role in connecting Patna and north Bihar because after crossing the Ganga from the Patna side, one reaches Hajipur for further journey to different places of north Bihar.

“The Centre has sent a proposal for making the Hajipur-Muzaffarpur road an eight-lane road,” state road construction minister Nand Kishore Yadav told The Telegraph.

The minister said the state has accepted the proposal and now details would be worked out for making a concrete proposal for constructing the new road.

Sources in the road construction department said there were two options available with the state government.

“One option is widening of the existing road and the second option is finding a new alignment for the road. The second option is more likely to get a go-ahead as widening of the existing highway would be a tough ask as after acquiring the land for the existing road people have settled on both sides of the road and it would be a tough ask to replace them once again,” said the source.

Nand Kishore, while speaking about the utility of the proposed road, said very soon work on constructing a new bridge parallel to the Gandhi Setu would start and when the bridge would become eight-laned, existence of a wider road would provide better and smooth connectivity between north Bihar and Patna.

The new bridge across the Ganga in Patna would be constructed west of Gandhi Setu and it would be a four-lane bridge like the Setu. The tender process for this bridge is likely to be completed by March next year.

The Centre has also given consent for constructing an elevated road between Shivala, located on south-western fringe of Patna and Bihta.

The state government had requested for constructing this 15km of elevated road as problems were arising in acquisition of land.

“We had requested the Centre for constructing elevated road in the stretch and it has accepted our proposal,” Nand Kishore said and added that now a detailed project report would be prepared and would be sent for the Centre’s approval.

Courtesy: The Telegraph