NEW DELHI: In a major pre-poll boost ahead of Bihar assembly elections in October-November, the government on Wednesday approved two key infrastructure projects worth Rs 7,616 crore for the state.
Briefing media about the decisions taken at the meeting of the Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs (CCEA), chaired by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Information & Broadcasting Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw said, the first of the two projects is the construction of 82 Kms green field Mokama-Munger section of the Buxar-Bhagalpur high-speed National Highway corridor worth Rs 4,447 crore.
The second decision has been taken for doubling of the 177 kms Bhagalpur-Dumka-Rampurhat rail line with an estimated cost of Rs 3,169 crore, as both of these are likely to be completed in the next three years, the Minister informed.
According to an official release, the construction of the four-lane access-control highway project is estimated to generate nearly 14.83 lakh man-days of direct employment and another 18.46 lakh man-days of indirect employment, creating an opportunity to foster additional employment to boost economic activity in the state.
It further said that the road project would support an average vehicle speed of 80 km/h, with a design speed of 100 km/h, as the aim is to reduce the overall travel time by approximately 1.5 hours.
“The increased economic activity in the region is expected to drive up the freight movement and the traffic on the Mokama-Munger section in the future,” Vaishnaw said.
Meanwhile, the 177-km Bhagalpur-Dumka-Rampurhat rail project will significantly improve connectivity among Bihar, Jharkhand, and West Bengal, as “the multi-tracking proposal will ease operations and reduce congestion, providing the much-required infrastructural development on the busiest sections across the Indian Railways network”, the Minister said.
Noting that the railway cargo had been on the decline since Independence and had hit a low of 27 percent in recent times, Vaishnaw said, with the slew of measures taken under the leadership of Prime Minister Narendra Modi, the same has “now risen to nearly 29 percent”.
He said the approval of infrastructure projects worth Rs 11 lakh crore during Prime Minister Modi’s third term reflects a “transformational change” that is boosting employment and improving the lives of people across the country.
According to the government release, the new doubling of the railway line project “will serve five districts covering 441 villages and about 28.72 lakh people in the three states as the national transport monolith expands its network nationwide”.
“Project section also provides rail connectivity to prominent destinations such as Deoghar (Baba Baidyanath Dham), Tarapith (Shakti Peeth) etc., attracting pilgrims and tourists from across the country,” the government said in the note.
This route has been termed as an essential route for the transportation of commodities like coal, cement, fertilisers, bricks and stones, it said, adding that after the completion of the project, the transportation capacity “is expected to become 5 MTPA (Million Tonnes Per Annum)”.