Patna: Deepak Kumar, chairman of the National Highway Authority of India (NHAI), is likely to succeed Anjani Singh, who retires this month as Bihar chief secretary.

The Centre on Wednesday approved Deepak's premature repatriation to his parent cadre state. He is a 1984-batch Bihar cadre IAS officer who enjoys a good chemistry with chief minister Nitish Kumar and has worked under him in key posts. According to bureaucratic circles, Nitish's first preference was another Bihar cadre IAS officer, C.K. Mishra, secretary in the Union environment ministry, but he was reluctant to return to Bihar.

Nitish then spoke with Deepak during his last visit to Delhi and he agreed to return.

There are now speculations about Chanchal Kumar becoming the new principal secretary of home and Amir Subhani being shifted as the development commissioner.