NHAI has notified Patna-Bettiah road as National Highway 139W, setting the state for construction of a high-quality four-lane road between the two towns that would reduce the distance between them to 167 kilometres from the current 200-odd km and travel time to around 2.5 hours from the current five hours, officials familiar with the matter said.
The NHAI is also likely to build a four-lane bridge over the river Ganga, parallel to JP Setu, which would also ease traffic load on the proposed outer ring road in the state capital. The road construction department (RCD) has already submitted the detailed project report (DPR) for the proposed bridge, estimated to cost ₹1,900 crore.
Additional chief secretary (RCD) Amrit Lal Meena said the distance between the state capital and the historic and ecologically rich town of Bettiah would be reduced to just two-and-a-half hours. “The proposed road would boost tourists’ inflow to the West Champaran, where Valmikinagar Tiger Reserve is being developed as a hub of ecotourism,” said Meena.
RCD minister Nitin Nabin, while lauding the Union Ministry of Road Transport and Highway (MoRTH) for strengthening the road network in the state, said the district magistrates (DMs) concerned had been asked to expedite the land acquisition process so that the NHAI could launch the ground work at the earliest. “More than 60% of land required for strengthening the road has already been acquired,” the minister said.
A senior RCD official said the project, which envisages building road on 167 km, apart from nearly five-km-long bridge on Ganga, is expected to cost around ₹5,000 crore. “The best part of it is that entire expenditure would be borne by the NHAI, including that of the bridge. The state government was earlier scheduled to construction the bridge,” he said.
The road, once completed, would benefit the people of Patna, Saran, Vaishali, Muzaffarpur, East and West Champaran districts. Moreover, traffic load on JP setu, which is currently two-lane structure, would come down drastically once the four-lane bridge along the alignment of the existing bridge is built. The main bridge would be nearly 4.83 km long while its approach would be around five km. Officials said they would not require acquiring additional land for bridge as the RCD had already got the possession of it.
Classification of Road: NH-139W
Length of project: 167km
Length of bridge on Ganga: 4.83km (main structure)
Length of approach road to bridge: 5km
Project cost: ₹5,000 crore
Districts to benefit: Patna, Saran, Vaishali, Muzaffarpur, East Champaran and West Champaran