Patna, Sept. 2: The state government has decided to upgrade 866.9km of roads to state highways (SHs) to help improve road connectivity in the state.

Of the 14 roads (see table), which have been notified as SHs, eight fall under the category of major district roads (MDR) and the remaining six under the rural works department. While MDRs are already under the jurisdiction of the road construction department, the roads that belong to rural works department would also come under its jurisdiction.

At present, these roads are single-lane thoroughfares, which would be converted into double-lane roads.

With the addition of 866.9km, the total length of SHs in Bihar would go up to 4,855.9km. Earlier, it was 3,989km.

This is the third time in six years that the state government has decided to upgrade such a big chunk of roads to the category of SHs.

In 2005, the length of SHs in Bihar was 2,035km. In 2007-08, 1,054km of other roads was upgraded to SHs.

The second major upgrade took place in 2008-09 when another 828km of local roads were brought under the category of SH. Apart from these, some other roads, too, were added to the list of SHs during the past six years.

“The selection of 866.9km roads, which have been upgraded as SHs, has been done on the basis of an extensive survey so that people living in different regions could use them to reach the state capital from any part of the state in six hours,” road construction minister Nand Kishore Yadav told The Telegraph today.

On December 25, 2010, The Telegraph had published a report with the details of plans of the road construction department to carry out a survey to build link roads to minimise the distance between Patna and other parts of the state.

As far as converting the newly notified SHs from single-road to double lane is concerned, the minister said this would be completed in next four years.

“We will approach Asian Development Bank (ADB) and other such agencies to get loans to mobilise funds for the upgrade work,” Yadav said. He added that the state would try to mobilise a part of this fund from its internal resources as well.

ADB has already provided soft loans to the state to execute Bihar State Highway Project (BSHP) under which several SHs have been or would be upgraded.

Under Phase I of BSHP, which intends to upgrade 820km of SHs using the ADB loan, the bank had provided $420 million. Construction of most of these roads has been completed.

Under BSHP Phase II, which entails construction of 938km of SHs, ADB has already sanctioned $300 million.

Apart from ADB loans, funds of Rashtriya Sam Vikas Yojana have also been used to lay 2,035km of SHs. These are being constructed by central agencies.