Patna, Sept. 1: The grand road that Sher Shah built has been buried in bureaucratic crunching of numbers.
The National Highway (NH) 2 stretch of Grand Trunk Road, the pathway connecting three countries and one that is a bustling tide of humanity, would now get yet another name.
If NH-2 weren’t sombre enough, the road of dreams would now be known as the even more bombastic sounding 19 GQ (Golden Quadrilateral).
The renaming of the road has been done by the Union ministry of road transport and highways.
The change in name is not limited to this historical road laid out by the Afghan emperor Sher Shah Suri. The road was later extended westward to Multan, now in Pakistan, and in the east to Sonargaon, now in Bangladesh.
The ministry has changed the names of all national highways to rationalise the numbers tagged to them. About 3,734km of national highways pass through Bihar. According to the list sent by the Centre to the state government, the roads that are part of the golden quadrilateral have been suffixed with the letters “GQ”. Those that are part of the East-West Corridor would be suffixed with the letters “EW”.
In case of Bihar, the national highway stretch between Gopalganj and Purnea, which will pass through Pipra Kothi, Muzaffarpur, Darbhanga, Forbesganj and Araria, would now be known as 27 EW.
One important highway, 28A, between Pipra Kothi and Raxaul, which is the main route followed by the majority of commercial vehicles going to Nepal via Bihar, would now be known as NH 527D.
Those residing in Patna and going to different directions too would have to refurbish their knowledge about the numbers of the highways. For example, the Patna-Ara stretch of NH 30 would now be known as NH 922.
Renaming apart, the ministry has also clubbed many highways and given them a new name. One can take the example of stretches of NH 31 and NH 107 between Maheshkhut and Kora passing through Sonbarsa Raj, Simri Bakhtiyarpur, Saharsa, Madhepura, Sarsi and Purnea. This stretch would now be known as NH 231.
One of the most extensive clubbing of highways has been done in case of the stretch between Sonbarsa on the India-Nepal border and Dobhi passing through Sitamarhi, Muzaffarpur, Hajipur, Patna, Punpun, Gaya and Bodhgaya, which would now be known as NH 22. Prior to the new nomenclature, one had to pass through NH 77, 83, 30 and 99 to cover this stretch.
As a result of the clubbing exercise, the total number of highways passing through Bihar would come down to 24 from the existing 28.
“We recently received a letter about renaming and clubbing of national highways,” Bihar road construction minister Nand Kishore Yadav told The Telegraph. He, however, said the shift would take some time.
