Union Minister for Road Transport and Highways Nitin Gadkari inaugurated the three-lane Koilwar bridge on the Sone river in Bihar through video conferencing on Thursday.
The bridge costing Rs 266 crore would make commuting easier in South Bihar. People will be able to commute between Patna and Bhojpur and Chapra to Bhojpur easily. Moreover, going towards Rohtas, Kaimur, Aurangabad, and Buxar to reach the Delhi-Kolkata NH-2 and the upcoming Purvanchal expressway would be more convenient now.
The new bridge will replace the 138-year-old rail-cum-road bridge called Abdul Bari Bridge.
After inaugurating the bridge, Gadkari said, “The new bridge will be known as ‘Vashishtha Narayan Singh Bridge’. With this, the old Abdul Bari Bridge will now be used only for rail traffic.’
However, the Railways has already raised concerns over excessive load on the old bridge. It has written to the Bihar government as well as the Union surface transport ministry to search for an alternative.
“During an inspection of the old bridge, I went there and realized how difficult it was to travel on that. I have directed the concessionaire to complete the remaining three-lane bridge and the four-lane road from Koilwar to Aarah by October 2021. Moreover, 40 percent work of the four-lane road between Aarah to Buxar is completed and I have directed the construction company to complete the project by October 2021,” Gadkari said.
With this, going from Patna to Buxar would be extremely easy and further towards Gazipur to reach the Lucknow-Gazipur Purwanchal expressway.
Gadkari said that the Chapra-Rewagath-Muzaffarpur 4-lane road has been completed, Muzaffarpur-Sonvarsa 4-lane road is 99 percent complete, the Chapra-Gopalganj 4-lane road is 92 percent complete, the Bihar Sharif-Barbigha-Mokama road is 90 percent complete, Patna to Bakhtiyarpur 4-lane road is 99 percent ready. The Hajipur to Muzaffarpur stretch is 75 per cent complete.
Gadkari said that the construction of many bridges is currently underway in Bihar.
