Patna: Industrialists and entrepreneurs are waiting with bated breath for the Union budget to reveal the sops for Bihar.

They are expecting that the National Democratic Alliance (NDA) government at the Centre will rain special facilities, projects and funs on the state as the same alliance is in power here, that too after a long time. The associations are hoping that the central government will keep in mind the low industrial development in Bihar and would strive to address it through the budget that's going to be tabled in the Lok Sabha by Union finance minister Arun Jaitley.

Bihar Chamber of Commerce and Industry (BCCI) president P.K. Agrawal said Union minister for road transport, highways and shipping Nitin Gadkari has told chief minister Nitish Kumar that the Centre will spend Rs 2 lakh crore in Bihar over the next five years for infrastructure development.

"The fact is that Bihar is a backward state. Though the issue of special status is closed, it can always be given a special package as a mark of generosity and the intention to develop the 10 per cent population of the country, which lives here," Agrawal said.

Agrawal added that industrialists and entrepreneurs expect the budget to give a good package to Bihar that will focus on the development of infrastructure, industry and other sectors including agriculture. "Better and bigger roads, communication, power, gas pipeline, airports, dry ports, giant industries that will bring employment boom, agriculture-based industries are the things that we want from the Union budget this time," Agrawal added.

Bihar Industries Association (BIA) president K.P.S. Keshri is expecting that the Union budget will be such that its focus would be on removing regional imbalance in the light of the fact that the whole of Bihar is a backward state.

"We hope that the budget will have provisions for an industrial development fund, which will take up the level of infrastructure in a state like Bihar to a decent level in comparison to the national average" Keshri said.