The Hindu Business Line : Asian Bank grants $420 m loan for Bihar roads

NEW DELHI: In an effort to shrug off its notoriety for bad roads, the Bihar government has taken a $420-million loan from the Asian Development Bank (ADB) to carry out major facelift of nine state highways.

“The money will be spent on converting nine state highways into double-lane roads covering a total stretch of 820 kilometres. ADB gave clearance for issuing work orders for six roads recently,” a Bihar government official said here.

Work on one stretch was already in progress while the government will go for re-tendering for two other roads, he added.

The Government is trying to convert these roads into double-lane traffic corridors as per international standards and bids were invited for the conversion of these roads in accordance with international bidding procedures.

ADB board had approved tenders for the six roads on September 18. Earlier, Bihar government held negotiations with ADB here between August 18 and August 21 on the matter.

ADB had also given its consent for development of 1,500-kilometre stretch of state highways into two-lane roads as per international standards under Bihar State Highways Project (BSHP).

The decision follows a series of negotiations with officials of Bihar government and Department of Economic Affairs (DEA) under the union ministry of finance for development of the state roads, which officials admitted are in a bad shape. The BSHP will be executed in two phases. The nine roads have been included in its first phase. - PTI

Prev: Gujarat loses Rs 589 crore due to underassessment of taxes

Business Line | NUS Index |


Related Topics Agricultural Policy E-Governance Financial Policy Foreign Relations Human Resources Industrial Policy People Politics Public Policy Note Random Walk Security Trade & Labour Unions View Point