Nitish Kumar's Bihar to have road ambulances for emergency care of potholes

Patna: Bihar is all set to introduce a novel concept - ambulances to fix its roads. The first of these unique vehicles will hit the roads on January 14.

During its first term between 2005-10, the Nitish Kumar government was synonymous with improving the law and order situation, better health facilities and above all - good roads.

But many roads in the state have now fallen into disrepair - important highways like the ones connecting Patna to Aurangabad - are full of potholes.

Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar, who is now in-charge of the roads department, has kicked off an ambitious 2500-crore programme to repair over nine thousand kilometres of state highways and village roads by May.

Mr Kumar also announced that 76 'road ambulances' will work round the clock to attend to complaints of people. Soon people in the state will be able to contact a 24 hours call centre and ask for these 'ambulances' to fix their roads.

These vehicles will be equipped with all materials to fix potholes. They will be fitted with Global Positioning System (GPS) and will be tracked from a central control room being set up in Patna. They will be owned and run by private contractors but the government will control the design and operations of these 'ambulances.'

Pratyay Amrit, the state's Road construction secretary says Bihar is perhaps the first state to have such a large fleet of these vehicles. "The first ambulance will be available after January 14 and we hope the entire fleet of 76 is on the road by March 15," Mr Amrit said.