Bumpy road

From bad to good to bad — the message on the condition of Bihar roads is easy to decipher.

During the Lalu-Rabri rule in the state, the road sector suffered a lot and the public perception was “one has to find roads in the labyrinth of potholes on national and state highways in Bihar”.

Cut to 2006. With Nitish Kumar on the saddle, things began to change for the better. By the end of his first term in 2010, good roads was one of the major achievements on the Nitish government’s report card. So great was the commitment of the state government towards improving roads that it spent Rs 1,000 crore from its kitty to keep national highways in good shape.

Things, however, began to change for the worse during the second term of Nitish, which is now being carried forward by Jitan Ram Manjhi, on the road front.

Sample this: While presenting the report card of his government in November 2012, then chief minister Nitish had said: “Except for Kishanganj, one can reach Patna by road from any part of the state within six hours.”

Two years down the line, Manjhi would not be able to make the same claim while presenting the report card of his government on November 25. For there are many Kishanganjs, which Bihar has now, thanks to the potholed roads mocking the dream of Nitish and his party. The deterioration has come at a time when Nitish has Lalu in tow and even talks of a merger of JDU and RJD are in the air.

“It hurts when one sees the poor condition of roads and that too, one has tasted the benefits of good roads in the past few years. With Lalu in tow, one expects such things only,” said Manoj Kumar, a Motihari resident working in Patna, who frequently visits his native place.

The journey between Ara and Buxar is equally horrible, as both state highways and national highways are in bad condition.

All this is visible when the Bihar Road Assets Maintenance Policy, 2013, has come under which works worth Rs 2,579 crore were awarded for maintenance of 9,064km roads in the state.

“Nitish had implemented the policy in December 2013 and works were awarded. But till now, not even 100km of roads has been covered under this policy, as it has not been implemented properly,” said a senior official of the road construction department.

Quoting a World Bank report, former deputy chief minister Sushil Kumar Modi had recently said the construction of roads in Bihar fell by 23 per cent after the JDU snapped ties with the BJP.

Later, road construction minister Lalan Singh had said the report was about rural roads under Pradhan Mantri Grameen Sadak Yojana for which Centre did not approve schemes and allotted the funds.

The slow pace of road construction and bad condition of roads has had an adverse effect on several major projects started by Nitish.

The National Highways Authority of India (NHAI) terminated two major projects in the past eight months, including the 120-km Bakhtiyarpur-Khagaria road and the 125km Patna-Buxar road. In both cases, private agencies Madhucon VNC Consortium and Gammon Infrastructure Projects Limited abandoned the projects.

Major state highway projects such as the 116.76km Ara-Mohania and Rajauli-Bakhtiyarpur 107.15km stretches could not start due because of land problem. Similarly, major national highway stretches — 140km Khagaria-Purnea, 68km Motihari-Raxual, 125km Patna-Gaya-Dobhi and 64km Hajipur-Muzaffapur — announced in Nitish’s regime met with the same fate.

The department’s negligence could be gauged from the fact that its most ambitious Ganga driveway (23.5km) project turned out to be non-starter. After a year of launch of the project, just eight pillars have been laid.

Lalan said: “No doubt that roads more than five years old are not in good condition but we have made a proper plan to repair those. The department has decided to undertake the repair of 1,855km roads and 124 bridges.”

Asked about the non-implementation of the Bihar Road Assets Maintenance Policy 2013, Lalan said: “From November 22, we would go to every district in which we would instruct the district magistrates their proper implementation.”

The road construction department has decided to repair state highways and major district roads with an estimated length of 846km at an estimated cost of Rs 1,156 crore.

An NHAI officials blamed the state government. A senior NHAI official said: “The state government’s negligence has worsened the condition of national highways in the state. It’s true that NHAI looks after the national highways but the funds are allotted to the state governmen. NHAI does not look after the maintenance of the road.”

Nand Kishore Yadav, the former road construction minister and the leader of Opposition in the Assembly, said: “There is a nexus between the engineers and contractor which does not allow good roads.”