Trucks plying on a road in Bihar
The roads of Bihar are often counted among the country's worst, and the promise of a smooth ride has driven many a political campaign in the state. With elections just months away, these roads are again inspiring multi-crore promises, at least on paper.
The Narendra Modi led National Democratic Alliance (NDA) government at the Centre has announced a Rs 50,000 crore package on Tuesday, and the Bihar government led by Chief Minister Nitish Kumar has followed it up with an announcement of Rs 6,000 crores yesterday, all for construction of new roads in the state.
"They (NDA) are only making announcements. We will give this much money, we will give that much money, but when will this happen? This is an election year so they are just making announcements," claimed Mr Kumar.
Bihar has the dubious distinction of having some of the most ill maintained national highways in India. While the average for building national highways across the country is 12 kms per day, the figure for Bihar in 2014 is less than even one km per day as per National Highways Authority of India (NHAI).
"Work on some Bihar roads was stalled. We did not get proper land. I don't want to blame anyone. We do not want to bring politics in developmental work," union minister for road transport and highways, Nitin Gadkari, had said in Patna on Tuesday.
Though Mr Gadkari has big plans for Bihar, he himself admits that, of the Rs 50,000 crores announced, Rs 20,000 crores worth of projects is old and already underway. The new projects worth Rs 30,000 crores will not see any physical work this year, but are likely to start in 2016.