A 12km stretch of road, which was swept away in the floods of 2007 and has not been repaired since, belies chief minister Nitish Kumar's claim to fame of having overhauled Bihar's infrastructure in general and roads in particular.

The "road" connects Rampur village in Hasanpur block of Samastipur to big villages like Shasan and smaller ones like Bahattar and Gijri. It is a lifeline for farm produce from thousands of acres of fertile land, but the road exists just in remains here and there. The rest is broken, unfit for travel. Yet, vehicles and carts crawl through it as there is no other option.

Old-timers say the road was a kuchcha one paved with terracotta bricks in 1985. It took 22 years to become a pucca (made of bitumen) one in March 2007; months later, floodwaters swept it away.

The bits of the road that remain are being further eroded at a place where it touches a pond outside the village, and local people said the erosion during this rainy season was so high that they fear the road may vanish altogether during the rains next year.

The sugarcane season is about to commence, and the road is the only route through which farmers of hundreds of villages in the hinterlands of Samastipur, Begusarai and Khagaria districts take their sugarcane produce to the New India Sugar Mills in Hasanpur - the only functional sugar mill in Samastipur and adjoining districts.

"Sugarcane-loaded tempos, tractors, trucks and bullock carts take this road to reach the sugar mill in Hasanpur. Several of them overturn despite moving slowly because the road has caved in at several places and is full of potholes. Many persons were injured, animals died and vehicles were damaged during the last cane season," said Maksudan Rai, a farmer from Rampur.

It's not just machine and beast that suffer.

"I have often seen motorcycles and bicycles fall down and people getting injured. Though we rush to help them, we cannot do much except taking them to a hospital or home to rest. The government has not paid attention to the road for so many years," said Mohammad Mukhtar, a mason who doubles as a manual labourer.

Another farmer Arun Kumar Rai pointed out that the road has been damaged in such a way that it is under knee-deep water during the monsoon, rendering it useless.

"I chant the name of God while moving on this road to ward off any mishap," said Rajendra Rai, who owns a tractor that he also hires out.

The road is so important and the people are so desperate for it to be repaired that many local people pleaded with The Telegraph team with folded hands to get the work done, mistaking us for government officials.

Rampur mukhiya Prashant Kumar Rai said the rural works department looks after the road.

"I have constructed around 6,400 feet of roads within our panchayat, but we all know that our place is poorly connected to nearby panchayats, Samastipur district headquarters and Begusarai town. The bigger roads are beyond our purview. Senior government officials, the local MLA and MP should pay attention to their repair and construction," Prashant said.

The district headquarters town of Samastipur is around 62km from Rampur.

Asked about the upkeep of the road, rural works department executive engineer Ratnesh Paswan, under whose jurisdiction the road is, accepted that it was in poor condition, but added that he was new to the area.

"It is a category-I road in importance because it connects block headquarters, railway station, hospitals and such other important installations and should be repaired on priority. I don't know whether proposals for repair have come or not. May be a detailed project report for its repair will be made later on," Ratnesh added.