The Centre has given in-principle approval for yet another bridge across the Ganga in Bihar, road construction minister Nand Kishore Yadav said on Monday.

'The Centre has given in-principle approval for constructing a two-lane bridge parallel to the existing Digha-Sonepur rail-cum-road bridge,' Nand Kishore said over phone after meeting Union minister of road transport and highways Nitin Gadkari in New Delhi.

There are already three new bridges coming up across the Ganga: The Kachchi-Dargah -Bidupur bridge, a bridge parallel to the Gandhi Setu, and the Tajpur-Bakhtiyarpur bridge. Nand Kishore said the proposed new bridge was part of the outer ring road project that entails setting up of a network providing road connectivity to people who want to traverse across the Ganga without entering Patna.

Sources in the road construction department said survey work for the new bridge was likely to begin in the current fiscal.

'The chairman of National Highways Authority of India, Deepak Kumar, is scheduled to visit Patna in September itself and our department is preparing details on the outer ring road project. The proposed bridge happens to be part of that very project,' a senior road construction department said.

On Monday, Nand Kishore first met Rajnath Singh for about 90 minutes at the Union home minister's official residence, followed by a 75-minute meeting with Gadkari at Transport Bhavan. During the meeting with Gadkari, Nand Kishore also discussed national highways damaged due to the flood in Bihar. With Rajnath, Nand Kishore discussed the proposed 557km road along the India-Nepal border.

'The Centre has sanctioned the construction of road along the India-Nepal border in Bihar but due to heavy rain in Bihar many roads have been damaged,' Nand Kishore said. 'There is a need re-inspection of the project and Rajnath ji agreed to send a border management team to Bihar to assess the damaged roads.'

The project entails a two-lane road that will connect West Champaran, East Champaran, Sitamarhi, Madhubani, Supaul, Araria, and Kishanganj. The state will bear the land acquisition cost, and the Centre will bear the construction cost. The state road construction department will implement the project.

'Gadkari ji has assured that funds would not be an issue for constructing road and bridges in Bihar,' said Nand Kishore, who was accompanied by his department principal secretary Amrit Lal Meena. 'Even Rajnathji expressed solidarity with the flood-hit people.'