Patna, Dec. 21: The entire 487-km stretch of the East-West Corridor that passes through Bihar would be ready for public use early next year following the inauguration of the Kosi Mahasetu.

The 5-km bridge over the Kosi would reduce the journey time between Madhubani and Supaul by around five hours. At present, the residents of the two districts have to take a circuitous route and it takes about eight hours to cover the distance between Madhubani and Supaul.

“Prime Minister Manmohan Singh is likely to inaugurate the bridge in February. The Union road transport and highways ministry will announce the final date,” a senior National Highways Authority of India (NHAI) official said.

NHAI is in charge of supervising construction of the East-West Corridor that begins from Silchar in Assam and runs up to Porbandar in Gujarat. The Bihar stretch of the corridor begins from the state’s boundary with Uttar Pradesh in Gopalganj district and passes through East Champaran, Muzaffarpur, Darbhanga, Madhubani, Saharsa, Supaul, Araria and Purnea districts before entering Bengal through Dalkola. According to sources, Rs 3,000 crore have been spent for the construction of the 487 km of the road.

“The entire stretch has been divided into 15 packages. Construction work on 10 packages is over. Work on the remaining five packages, spread over 40 km, is on and it will be over before the inauguration date,” the NHAI official said.

There would be seven toll collection centres along the route. Commuters would have to pay toll in accordance with the distance they cover. The users’ charge would vary anything between Rs 0.60 a km to Rs 2.35 a km, depending on the vehicle one uses. Higher rates would be applicable for heavy vehicles. There would, however, be no toll for three-wheelers and two-wheelers.

The four-lane road has been designed in a way to segregate the movement of slow and fast moving vehicles as well as that of the two-wheelers and the four-wheelers.