Patna/Motihari, April 18: Chief minister Nitish Kumar is playing Santa, doling out gifts to people this summer. While he inaugurated a milk cooling plant at Hajipur in Vaishali district today, on Friday he would lay the foundation stone of a bridge in East Champaran that will slash the travelling time to Gopalganj by half.

Inaugurating the 1.5-lakh-litre milk storage plant, Nitish today announced the opening of another dairy plant for Rs 100 crore in Hajipur.

“The dairy plant will have the capacity to store 4 lakh litres of milk and produce milk powder up to 30 metric tonnes. A milk tetra pack packaging plant will also be installed.”

Directing the principal secretary of animal and fish resources department, Sudhir Kumar, and Comfed managing director Harjot Kaur on the proposed plant, the chief minister: “I want all of you to start work on a war footing so that the foundation stone of the plant can be laid down in May when Union finance minister Pranab Mukherjee comes to Bihar to launch the agriculture roadmap for 2012-17.”

He added: “The agriculture roadmap’s target is to increase profit in poultry, fisheries, horticulture and dairy. Its target is not to bring green revolution but to bring rainbow revolution. The quality of poultry, fisheries and agriculture should improve so that the farmers can generate more profit.”

During his Seva Yatra to East Champaran on Friday, the chief minister is scheduled to lay the foundation stone of a much-awaited bridge in Kesariya block near Sattarghat on river Gandak. The 1.75-km-long bridge will connect East Champaran and Gopalganj districts and once complete, the travel time will be halved. Now, it takes around three hours to travel between the districts.

The bridge would be constructed in collaboration with Nabard at an estimated cost of Rs 384 crore. It would also ensure the shortest route to reach Gopalganj and Chhapra in Saran district. Kesariya MLA Sachindra Prasad Singh said the bridge would reduce the 130km distance between East Champaran and Chhapra by around one-third.

Deputy chief minister Sushil Kumar Modi, road construction minister Nand Kishore Yadav, tourism minister Sunil Kumar ‘Pintu’, urban development minister and minister in-charge of East Champaran Prem Kumar and Motihari MP Radha Mohan Singh would also be present on the occasion, Singh said.

He added that Nitish would also review tourism-related facilities near the Buddha stupa at Kesariya.

Apart from laying the foundation stone of the bridge and visiting the Buddha stupa, a senior district administration officer said the chief minister would also visit shell industries in Mehsi and an integrated farming site at Bara Govind village.

On the second day of his Seva Yatra, Nitish is likely visit the renovated Sugauli sugar industry, 30km north of Motihari and owned by Hindustan Petroleum, and unveil a life-size statue of a former Bihar minister, late Rajendra Pratap Singh, at Chhatauni Chowk in Motihari town.

Nitish would also hold a janata darbar at the local Gandhi Maidan, visit the birthplace of George Orwell and Gandhi Smarak in Motihari town as well as Chandrahiya village, around 20km from Motihari town. On the final day of the tour, Nitish will preside over a meeting with district heads of the departments at Radha Krishnan Bhavan and visit the famous Shiva temple in Areraj.