Patna: Work on the projects Prime Minister Narendra Modi had announced for Bihar before the Assembly polls has picked up pace under the new government, road construction minister Nand Kishore Yadav said on Thursday.

The packages - the word the minister used for projects - were divided into 54 parts and the work is being executed by the National Highway Authority of India (NHAI) and National Highways (NH), he said.

The NHAI is directly under the Centre, while the NH under the Bihar government prepares detail project reports based on which the Centre provides funds.

"NHAI is looking after 24 parts and NH is executing 30 parts," Nand Kishore said. "NHAI is doing work worth Rs 30,200 crore and NH is doing work worth Rs 24,500 crore. Ever since the new government has formed in Bihar the pace of work has increased in these projects."

Work is under way on 19 packages while work on another 14 packages that have been awarded to firms will start in the next two to three months, he said.

"There are 21 packages that have not been awarded to any firm and today we held the review meeting and instructions were given to complete the tendering process for all packages by March 2018," the minister said. "There are some problems in land acquisition but I have asked the officials to sort out the issues."

The projects include rehabilitation of Gandhi Setu, six-lane bridge in Mokama, parallel bridge to Koilwar rail-cum-road bridge, new bridge parallel to Gandhi Setu, a bridge over the Kosi river, and another bridge over the Ganga from Sahibganj in Jharkhand to Manihari in Katihar.

Nand Kishore said another bridge will come up on the Sone in Panduka and another one in Buxar that will connect to Balia in Uttar Pradesh.

A total of 52 roads withy 2500 km length were given in-principal approval of which 42 have been shortlisted by the department. The PM's package also includes 12 road over bridges.