To send a message that the new government means pure business, deputy chief minister Tejaswi, on the first day of assuming charge as the minister of road construction department on Monday, finalised the bidding process for Kachchi Dargah-Bidupur bridge project, one of the most ambitious projects of Nitish Kumar. Piyush Kumar Tripathi gives you the fine print of the project 

Bridge parallel to Setu

Project: Construction of six-lane greenfield bridge between Kachchi Dargah at Patna City and Bidupur at Vaishali

Department: Road construction 

Minister: Tejaswi (deputy chief minister)

Conceptualised: National Highways Authority of India (NHAI) approved the preliminary feasibility study for the project in 2011

Scope: Construction of a suspension-cable bridge having length of 9.76km with approach road on either sides measuring 13km (total length: 22.76km)

Cost: Rs 4,800 crore

Status: Nitish had laid the foundation stone for the project on April 4 this year. Out of the three firms — Korea-based Daewoo Engineering & Construction Co., Ltd, China Harbor and China Railway Construction Company — the first firm was shortlisted for the contract when the bids were opened in the presence of Tejaswi on Monday. The Korean firm has formed a joint company with L&T India to undertake the construction work

Apart from this project, Bihar ministers have a task at hand even before they could think of launching new things in their respective departments. It pertains to the completion of pending projects, which were started by chief minister Nitish Kumar in his previous term. Nitish had initiated a number of such ambitious projects between 2012 and 2014 at an estimated outlay of around Rs 2,500 crore. However, the progress in most such projects has been lately sluggish, mainly owing to the Assembly elections. Here’s a highlight of six such dream projects of Nitish, which require immediate attention

Masterplan 

Project: Masterplan for proposed Patna metropolitan region

Department: Urban development and housing 

Minister: Maheshwar Hazari

Conceptualised: Urban development and housing department in February 2011 entrusted the task of making 
survey and providing technical assistance for the preparation of the draft masterplan for Patna to CEPT University, Ahmedabad

Agency: Urban development and housing 

Scope: Masterplan is a tool to plan and regulate urban growth in and around a city over a given period of time. Against the existing city area in the capital spread over around 250sqkm, the proposed master plan envisages the Patna metropolitan region to be spread over total area of around 1150sqkm

Cost: Not applicable

Status: Bihar Planning and Development Board on August 11 approved the proposed masterplan for Patna but final nod from the cabinet is awaited 

Metro rail

Project: Construction of Metro rail in Patna

Department: Urban development and housing 

Minister: Maheshwar Hazari

Conceptualised: 2011

Scope: Construction of two corridors — east-west and north-south for Metro network with a total length of 31km

Cost: Rs 11,545 crore

Status: Nitish Kumar gave in-principle approval to the project on May 20, 2015

Clean Patna

Project: Patna Solid Waste Management Project — Jawaharlal Nehru Urban Renewal Mission 

Department: Urban development and housing (Patna Municipal Corporation)

Minister: Maheshwar Hazari

Conceptualised: Ministry of urban development approved the project on March 28, 2007

Scope: Door-to-door collection of garbage, putting bins and supply of municipal equipment, including tippers and compactors among others to cart away garbage from the streets

Cost: Rs 36.95 crore

Status: Work order for purchase of six categories of sanitation equipment is required to be issued and fresh tenders are required to be floated for another eight categories. Besides, no progress has been made in door-to-door collection of waste 

Affordable houses

Project: Bihar State Housing Board to development around 10,000 flats in Patna 

Department: Urban development and housing (Bihar State Housing Board)

Minister: Maheshwar Hazari

Conceptualised: The board of BSHB had given approval to the project on November 28, 2011

Scope: Development of residential flats at Bahadurpur and Lohia Nagar with internal roads, streetlights, drainage network, parks, marriage hall, landscaping

Cost: Rs 561 crore

Status: The bidding process for the first stage of the scheme started in early-2013 but it failed in the later stages as no bidder turned up. Fresh tenders are to be floated 

Convention hub

Project: International Convention Centre

Department: Building construction

Minister: Tejaswi 

Conceptualised: Nitish had laid the foundation stone of the convention centre on February 8

Scope: It has five components — main convention hall, Gyan Bhavan, auditorium, Sabhyata Dwar and a food court. The main convention hall would have seating capacity for 5,000 people. Around 16,500 tonnes of steel is being used in its construction

Cost: Rs 417 crore

Status: Work on steel-frame-based super-structure is in the final stages but officials claimed that the remaining work, including internal furnishing and fixtures, is unlikely to be completed by the project deadline, which is end of this month

Assembly extension  

Project: Vidhan Sabha annexe building

Department: Building construction 

Minister: Tejaswi 

Conceptualised: Nitish had laid the foundation stone for the project on January 26, 2010

Scope: The project includes construction of Vidhan Mandal building and four secretariat blocks. It will also have a convention centre with the seating capacity for 550 people. The three conference halls will accommodate 400, 200 and 100 people respectively

Cost: Rs 362 crore

Status: Work on the superstructure has been completed and the furnishing work is going on. Officials have claimed that they have targeted to complete the project by the end of March 2016