Patna: The state government and National Highways Authority of India (NHAI) have signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) to deploy ambulances and cranes every 50km on national highways (NH) in the state in view of road accidents and crashes.
The MoU was signed in the presence of Union minister for road transport and highways Nitin Gadkari and chief minister Nitish Kumar on Monday. Gadkari had flown down to Patna to attend two back-to-back meetings that lasted for around six hours.
Officials at the meeting said the MoU will help ensure quick medical response and save lives of people injured on the highways. The cranes will not only clear the route fast, but also help extricate people if trapped inside a vehicle.
"The alignment of Patna Ring Road project has been agreed upon. The state government will provide land to us, and we will build it," Gadkari said after the meeting and added that discussions were also held on constructing an elevated road in Rajgir in Nalanda district.
Gadkari and Nitish had detailed discussion on various projects that form a part of Prime Minister Narendra Modi's special package of Rs 1.65 lakh crore for Bihar, announced in 2015 in the run-up to Assembly polls. Around Rs 55,000 crore of the package is to be spent on roads and bridges. Several of these projects have got stuck due to slow pace of land acquisition, disbursement of compensation and other issues.
The state government has expedited land acquisition. Land has been acquired in 250 villages. "There are 68 projects worth Rs 55,000 crore related to roads and bridges in the Prime Minister's package for Bihar. Of these, work on 36 projects, worth Rs 22,000 crore, has started. Processing of tenders and their approval is going on for 10 projects worth Rs 10,000 crore, while detailed project reports are being made for 22 projects," Gadkari said.
Gadkari, who has the shipping portfolio, said no barrage will be constructed along the Ganga from Varanasi to Haldia as part of the 1,620-km National Waterway-I between Allahabad and Haldia. "There is no need for any barrage in the Varanasi-Haldia stretch as we will be able to maintain a 3m draft in the Ganga. It is difficult between Varanasi and Allahabad, still we are trying."
The Union minister said IIT Madras and the National Environmental Engineering Research Institute (NEERI) have been roped-in for suggestions and assessment with regard to the development of waterways.
Flanked by the chief minister, Gadkari, who also happens to be the central minister for water resources, river development and Ganga rejuvenation, said that the work on Namani Gange was swiftly progressing while keeping in mind the economy, ecology and environment.
"Cleaning the Ganga is a very challenging task. There are 99 projects in Namami Gange of which 87 have been started. DPR is being made in several of them. Work on tributaries of the Ganga, including Yamuna is also going on. We should understand that 70 per cent pollution in the Ganga is due to 10 cities only of which Kanpur is at the top," Gadkari added.
IIT Madras and IIT Kharagpur have been involved in Namami Gange.
The Union minister asserted that Ganga will be 80 per cent clean by 2019 and the central government has taken the entire project as a challenge, allocating Rs 22,000 crore for it. Around 4500 villages along the holy river makes the task more challenging.
