Deputy chief minister Tejaswi, who holds the road construction portfolio, on Friday lambasted Prime Minister Narendra Modi for making a false claim about the construction of highways in the country in his tenure.

Speaking on the budgetary demand of his road construction department in the Assembly, he said: "The Prime Minister invariably claims that his government has been building 14km of highways everyday against the UPA constructing only 2km daily. It is a wrong claim for it does not stand the scrutiny of the statistics of the National Highways Authority of India (NHAI)."

Driving his point home, Tejaswai continued: "The UPA-I headed by Manmohan Singh built 2,244km of roads during the first financial year of attaining power at the Centre. The UPA-II too got built 2,248km of roads made during the first financial year after it retained power in 2009. The Narendra Modi-led government has got built only 1,501km of highways made in 2014-15."

"These are not figures that I have manufactured. These are the figures procured from the NHAI records," said Tejaswi, before adding: "It is hard to find out the basis for the Prime Minister's claim." He warned the members as well as the people of the state to be vigilant about the Prime Minister's "false claim", when he visits Bihar on March 12.

The Opposition BJP walked in the middle of Tejaswi replying to the debate on budgetary demand of his department, rubbishing the minister's reply as "inadequate and insensitive".

But Tejaswi continued with his fire and brimstone after the BJP members walked out. He said the Union surface transport ministry was thoroughly "insensitive to Mahatma Gandhi Setu on the Ganga that is the lifeline between north Bihar and south Bihar."

"All of us know about the sufferings of commuters on Gandhi Setu that is in a dilapidated condition. We met surface transport minister Nitin Gadkari, drawing his attention towards the bridge in danger. Gadkari sounded very positive, promising that he would do whatever was possible to restore the bridge. But after that, he seems to have forgotten what he promised to us," Tejaswi said.

The young minister, amid thumping of desk from the treasury benches, pointed out that Gandhi Setu on the Ganga and several others roads and bridges under the NHAI in the state were in bad shape but the Centre had turned Nelson's eyes at them.

He said to provide alternative to Gandhi Setu, the state government had decided to build the bridge between Kachchi Dargah and Bidupur, billed to be one of the longest bridge on the Ganga. "The Asian Development Bank has already sanctioned a loan worth Rs 3,000 crore for the project and the state has been sparing Rs 2,000 crore from its own coffers. The entire cost of the bridge is estimated to be worth Rs 5,000 crore," he said, emphasising his government's commitment towards infrastructure building.

Tejaswi pilloried the Centre for withholding nearly Rs 1,000 crore which the state government had spent on the maintenance of national highways in the state.

"Our department is working hard to ensure that the commuters reach Patna within five hours from the farthest point in the state against six hours that was the earlier yardstick," he said.