The Union Cabinet has green flagged two projects which includes the construction of a six-lane bridge on the river Ganga in Bihar and the renovation and widening of a 135 km stretch of road in Tripura. The bridge is expected to improve the connectivity in Bihar while the road project in Tripura will boost travel between Assam and Tripura.
The Union Cabinet on December 27 approved the construction of a 4.56 km long, six-lane bridge on river Ganga which connects Digha and Sonepur in Bihar, as informed by Union minister Anurag Thakur.
The Cabinet further passed the renovation and widening of a 135 km stretch of Khowai-Harina road in Tripura that is set to facilitate better road connectivity between various parts of the northeast state. It additionally aims to provide alternative access to Assam and Meghalaya from Tripura, apart from existing NH-8.
Talking about the construction of the bridge on river Ganga, during a Cabinet briefing, Thakur said: “There is great potential in Bihar and PM Modi has always given various big projects for the development of the state. Bihar was, is and will remain a priority for the Modi government.”
The bridge is estimated to be built at a cost of ₹3,064.45 crore.
Digha, located at Patna and the south bank of the Ganga River and Sonepur, located at north bank of the Ganga River in Saran district are currently connected by a rail-cum-road bridge that permits the movement of light vehicles only. Thereby, restricting its use for transportation of goods and commodities.
The bridge is to improve connectivity for Vaishali, Kesariya, Areraj, Chapra, Motihari and Bettiah, Thakur said.
On the road widening project in Tripura, the Union minister said that it will make travel easy between Assam and Tripura and also improve connectivity between north and south Tripura.
“The project covers an investment of ₹2,486.78 crore which includes a loan component of ₹1,511.70 crore,” an official statement read. The loan assistance is coming from Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA) under the Official Development Assistance (ODA) scheme, it added.
