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The Road Transport and Highways (RTH) Ministry has agreed to broaden the Gaya-Patna road on a priority in view of the Bihar Government’s plan to develop the Gaya airport as the main airport of the State.
Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar is reliably learnt to have told RTH Minister CP Joshi during his meeting here on Friday that plans are afoot to develop Gaya airport as the main airport of the State as Patna airport cannot be expanded any further and big planes like Boeings are unable to land there.
“Very soon some of the air traffic to Patna is planned to be diverted to Gaya airport, which would be made the main airport of Bihar,” Kumar is understood to have told Joshi in his 40-minute meeting at Transport Bhawan.
The Bihar CM requested the RTH Minister to convert the present two-lane Gaya-Patna road into a four-lane road so that the passengers could reach Patna from Gaya by road in lesser time. At present, he said, it takes about two-and-a-half hours to traverse the 90-km distance between the two important cities. “With the broadening of the road, the travel would get reduced by at least an hour,” he said.
Joshi agreed to Kumar’s proposal and immediately asked RTH Secretary AK Upadhyay, Director General (Road Development) RP Indoria and NHAI Member (Projects) BN Singh, who were present in the meeting, to start work on the broadening project.
The Bihar CM said Gaya is the most important tourist destination in Bihar and the main destination of the Buddhist circuit. At present, most of the six lakh domestic and international tourists per year alight at Patna airport and reach Gaya by road. After Gaya airport becomes the main airport and the road between the ancient city and the State Capital is broadened, the tourists would land at Gaya and then go to Patna, he said.
He also expressed concern over the delay in taking up conversion of the two-lane Tajpur-Bakhtiarpur road into a four-lane one. Surprisingly, no bidder is coming forward consecutively for the project in PPP mode for the past three years since 2008. No bidder has turned up as yet for this year’s tender, which closes on September 19, Kumar informed and requested the RTH Minister to extend the bidding date by 15 days.
Kumar also noted that the destruction of ancient mountains near Rajgir which are 18,000 crore years old has been stopped by banning quarrying of stones in the area. He said contractors connived with the Naxals to exploit the mountains.
The CM also requested conversion of two other two-lane Muzaffarpur-Barauni and Khagaria-Purnea roads into four-lane roads.
Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar is reliably learnt to have told RTH Minister CP Joshi during his meeting here on Friday that plans are afoot to develop Gaya airport as the main airport of the State as Patna airport cannot be expanded any further and big planes like Boeings are unable to land there.
“Very soon some of the air traffic to Patna is planned to be diverted to Gaya airport, which would be made the main airport of Bihar,” Kumar is understood to have told Joshi in his 40-minute meeting at Transport Bhawan.
The Bihar CM requested the RTH Minister to convert the present two-lane Gaya-Patna road into a four-lane road so that the passengers could reach Patna from Gaya by road in lesser time. At present, he said, it takes about two-and-a-half hours to traverse the 90-km distance between the two important cities. “With the broadening of the road, the travel would get reduced by at least an hour,” he said.
Joshi agreed to Kumar’s proposal and immediately asked RTH Secretary AK Upadhyay, Director General (Road Development) RP Indoria and NHAI Member (Projects) BN Singh, who were present in the meeting, to start work on the broadening project.
The Bihar CM said Gaya is the most important tourist destination in Bihar and the main destination of the Buddhist circuit. At present, most of the six lakh domestic and international tourists per year alight at Patna airport and reach Gaya by road. After Gaya airport becomes the main airport and the road between the ancient city and the State Capital is broadened, the tourists would land at Gaya and then go to Patna, he said.
He also expressed concern over the delay in taking up conversion of the two-lane Tajpur-Bakhtiarpur road into a four-lane one. Surprisingly, no bidder is coming forward consecutively for the project in PPP mode for the past three years since 2008. No bidder has turned up as yet for this year’s tender, which closes on September 19, Kumar informed and requested the RTH Minister to extend the bidding date by 15 days.
Kumar also noted that the destruction of ancient mountains near Rajgir which are 18,000 crore years old has been stopped by banning quarrying of stones in the area. He said contractors connived with the Naxals to exploit the mountains.
The CM also requested conversion of two other two-lane Muzaffarpur-Barauni and Khagaria-Purnea roads into four-lane roads.
