'Roads' led Nitish's way back to power in Bihar

The ruling JD(U)-BJP played their achievements in the road sector prominently during the recently concluded assembly elections, which cut much ice among the voters, poll observers opine.

Against 384.6 km of roads in Bihar in 2004-05 (before Nitish Kumar took over the reins of the state in November 2005), the state now has 23,990.6 km of roads, State Road Construction Secretary Pratyay Amrit told PTI.

The plan outlay on roads forms around 30 per cent of the total state plan size against a meagre 5-6 per cent in past years, he said.

Amrit, who recently travelled to Singapore to receive accolades from the Asian Development Bank (ADB) for performance in the road sector, said the state aims to come on the front row alongside Gujarat by 2015 for having best roads in the country.

Besides, construction of state highways, district and rural roads, the state carried improvement of 1,722 km of National Highways out of their own limited resources during the period, he claimed.

He said that strict quality monitoring of the roads is maintained through third party inspection and random checking by flying squads comprising of highly qualified engineers.
Amrit said 1,671 bridges have been constructed in the state during the period.

Riding on good performance, Bihar State Bridge Corporation turnover has increased from Rs 42.62 crore in 2004-5 to Rs 923 crore in the fiscal 2009-10.