Patna: Bihar government on Tuesday approved the master plan to redevelop Gardanibagh area in Patna, once famous for residential quarters, mostly single-storied, which housed state government employees.

Several of the spacious quarters are now dilapidated owing to poor maintenance and upkeep.

The approval to the master plan came at a cabinet meeting chaired by chief minister Nitish Kumar at his secretariat. Altogether 10 agendas were deliberated and approved on the occasion.

"As per the master plan approved today, a township will be developed in Gardanibagh over 268 acres of government land. It will have residential quarters of judges, ministers, senior administrative officials, subordinate government employees. The township will also have hospital, mall, stadium, shopping complexes among other things," cabinet secretariat department special secretary Upendra Nath Pandey said.

The buildings will be vertical, instead of the existing horizontal ones. It will include 770 residential units. Spaces for various buildings have been earmarked in the master plan. The houses for judges and ministers will be spread over 14.5 acres, those for senior administrative officials on 13.16 acres and those for subordinate employees on 24 acres.

Sources said the master plan will be followed by detailed project report (DPR), estimates and selection of agencies to complete the project. The building construction department will oversee everything.

In another major decision, the cabinet approved the proposal to demolish existing buildings of police lines in Patna, which are in a bad shape, and build them afresh. The project will cost Rs 106 crore.

The cabinet also approved the education department's proposal to upgrade 2,000 secondary schools to senior secondary or +2 level. These schools were previously middle schools, and were upgraded to high schools.

Pandey said the cabinet also approved the proposal to construct +2 schools on 75 decimal plots to further the state government's policy to open one such school in every panchayat in Bihar.

The cabinet also approved appointment of retired additional secretary of cabinet secretariat, Ravindra Nath Gupta, at the same position in the same department on contract till he attains the age of 65, or till some other employee is promoted to the post.

In another decision, the cabinet approved the proposal to spend Rs 187 crore to complete construction of 81 model schools across the state, which were conceptualised in 2009-10 and 2010-11 as part of a centrally-sponsored scheme.

The cabinet approved a project management unit for the road construction department.