The report carried by The Telegraph on the new bridge in its November 15, 2011, edition

The financial help for constructing a new bridge across river Ganga in Patna would come from Asian Development Bank (ADB).

The ADB has agreed to provide Rs 5,000 crore loan to the Bihar government for constructing the 9.76km six-lane bridge. The southern end of the bridge would be at Kachchi Dargah, east of the existing Gandhi Setu, and the northern end at Bidupur in Vaishali. The project entails construction of approach roads as well.

As things stand now, a dilapidated Gandhi Setu is the only bridge that connects north Bihar with Patna. The new bridge is likely to be constructed in the next four years and the work would be executed in public-private partnership mode.

Sharing details with reporters about the ADB help, road construction minister Lallan Singh said: “Apart from the loan, the state government would provide Rs 2,000 crore for the project.”

The idea to construct the bridge was first floated in 2011 and the National Highways Authority of India (NHAI) was supposed to execute it. Things, however, appeared to have changed as the minister claimed that the Centre would have no role in construction of the bridge.

“There would be no role of the Centre in the project. The ADB has also done the inspection of the northern and the southern sides and then agreed to provide the loan to the Bihar government,” he said.

The new bridge will reduce load of vehicular pressure on Gandhi Setu. It would be a boon for the commuters, as snags hit the Setu quite often and sometimes it remains closed for vehicular movement when maintenance work is being done forcing vehicles to use longer routes to reach their destinations.

The road of the existing bridge was not wide enough to cope with the ever-increasing vehicular pressure on the section.

Apart from the construction of the 9.76km long bridge, the project also entails construction of approach roads — 8.5km on the southern and 1.5km in the northern sides. The approach roads would link the bridge with the existing ones.

The road construction minister said the tender for the project would be floated in February-March.

“Being the most ambitious project of Bihar, we want to start the work on priority basis. We have decided to float the tender in February-March and once the construction starts it would be over in three years,” Singh added.

Once the tender is floated, it takes at least three months for selecting the agency for executing the project.

The need for setting up the bridge parallel to the existing Gandhi Setu was felt because the existing one, which was open to public in 1982, has developed problems, including the poor condition of its super structure.

The traffic flow on the bridge has increased manifold in comparison to what was actually projected at the time of its construction. Certain portions in the western flank of the Gandhi Setu have been closed for vehicular movement because of the damaged superstructure.

Central agency NHAI has declined to take up the repair work of Gandhi Setu citing manpower crunch, barely a week after Union minister for road transport, highways and shipping Nitin Gadkari had announced in September that the Centre would overhaul it.

Gadkari had said during a media teleconference on September 15 that the Centre had decided to take up the bridge repair work following a request from chief minister Jitan Ram Manjhi. The Union minister had pledged the work would start within four months under NHAI.