Chief minister Nitish Kumar interacts with road construction department secretary Pratyaya Amrit during the inauguration of the Digha-AIIMS elevated road at Walmi. Picture by Deepak Kumar

The government gifted the city residents the dream of an elevated road from AIIMS-Patna in the south to Digha in the west this Diwali.

Chief minister Nitish Kumar laid the foundation for the project on the premises of Water and Land Management Institute (Walmi), Phulwarisharif, on Friday. He said: “On May 18 last year, when I went to inspect the work at AIIMS, the idea of an elevated road came to my mind. I instructed road construction department secretary Pratyaya Amrit to work on it. And today, I am very happy that work has started on this ambitious project.”

Gammon India Ltd has been awarded the project. Its duration is expected to be two-and-a-half years. It entails the construction of 11.9km semi-elevated and elevated road from AIIMS-Patna (on National Highway 98) to Digha (on the Ganga driveway). On the western side of Patna, it would connect with the under-construction Sonepur-Digha rail-cum-road bridge.

From AIIMS-Patna, the road would have two lanes and it would be semi-elevated. It would meet the Bailey Road flyover, between Jagdeo Path and Saguna Mor. From there, it would be an elevated, four-lane driveway.

Nitish said the elevated road would be a boon for people coming to Patna from north Bihar. “It would be a lifeline for serious patients who need to be rushed to AIIMS.”

The chief minister also took this opportunity to blame the railways. He wondered why the inauguration of the Patliputra Junction was cancelled on Thursday. “I had come up with the idea and design of Patliputra Junction when I was the railway minister. The state government is providing Rs 300 crore to the railways for the Sonepur-Digha rail-cum-road bridge. But when we wanted only 900m land along the tracks to construct a road, our request was turned down.”

The inauguration of the railway station was cancelled because of a protest by residents of Rupaspur and Jalalpur villages — around 1km from Patliputra Junction. The villagers demanded the repair of a road along the tracks leading to the villages. “Do you want us to lathicharge the villagers on protest in the festive season?” said Nitish.

He added: “The railway minister called me up and invited me to attend the inauguration (of Patliputra Junction) but I refused. We have also asked the chief secretary to return the money the railways had given the government for the land, along with the interest. After all the land belongs to the government and we would like to use it as we want.”

Praising the design of the proposed AIIMS-Digha road, he said: “The elevated road would be so well designed that it will attract tourists.”

Nitish said plans were afoot to construct another six-lane bridge over the Ganga. Running parallel to Gandhi Setu it would connect the city with Kachchi Dargah.