
Patna: Minister of railways Piyush Goyal has assured the state government of handing over 71 acres of R-block-Digha railway line land to the state for construction of road. This assurance came during his meeting with deputy chief minister Sushil Kumar Modi in Delhi on Saturday.
Modi shared this information with the press here on Sunday and said the Union minister had assured that all formalities related to the land transfer will be completed soon.
The development assumes significance as the state government has been trying to get this land to lay a road for several years.
The railway track on this land is 150 years old and it is 6km in length and 30m wide.

Earlier, the railways had estimated the market value of the land to be Rs 896 crore but when the NDA government came to power at the Centre, it agreed to get the land revaluated on the request of the state government. During revaluation, it came to the fore that the railways could not make commercial use of the land because of its shape. Finally, the value of the land was arrived at Rs 221 crore.
At present, the railways runs local trains on this route on which it spends around Rs 1 crore annually, whereas passenger paucity earns just around Rs 60,000 by sale of tickets.
The construction of road on this land, as proposed by the state government, will provide better connectivity between two parts of Patna and reduce vehicular pressure on the existing roads.
Modi said the proposed road will provide connectivity of R-block area with Serpentine Road, Boring Canal Road, Shivpuri, Rajiv Nagar and Digha localities. "The construction of the road will reduce traffic pressure on Bailey Road," he said.