Cabinet gives nod for new 4-lane highway in Bihar at a cost of Rs 4,447 crore

New Delhi, Sep 10 (IANS) The Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs, chaired by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, on Wednesday approved the construction of the proposed 4-lane greenfield access-controlled Mokama-Munger section of the Buxar-Bhagalpur high-speed corridor in Bihar on hybrid annuity mode, stretching across a length of 82.4 km with an investment of Rs 4,447.38 crore.

The section passes through or provides connectivity to important cities in the state, such as Mokama, Barahiya, Lakhisarai, Jamalpur, Munger, and connects to Bhagalpur.

The Munger–Jamalpur-Bhagalpur belt in eastern Bihar is emerging as a key industrial region focusing on an ordinance factory (existing gun factory and one more proposed as part of the Ordnance Factory Corridor by the Ministry of Defence), a locomotive workshop in Jamalpur, food processing (e.g., ITC in Munger) and related logistics and warehousing hubs.

Bhagalpur stands out as a textile and logistics hub, led by Bhagalpuri silk, while Barahiya is emerging as a region for food packaging, processing, and agro-warehousing. The increased economic activity in the region is expected to drive up the freight movement and the traffic on the Mokama-Munger section in the future.

The 4-lane access-controlled corridor with close tolling, supporting average vehicular speeds of 80 km per hour with a design speed of 100 km per hour, will reduce the overall travel time to approximately 1.5 hours, while offering safer, faster, and uninterrupted connectivity for both passenger and freight vehicles, according to an official statement.

The proposed project with 82.40 km length will generate about 14.83 lakh man-days of direct employment and 18.46 lakh man-days of indirect employment. The project will also induce additional employment opportunities due to an increase in economic activity in the vicinity of the proposed corridor, the statement added.

India’s national highway network has expanded from 91,000 km in 2014 to over 1.46 lakh km today, making it the second-largest road network in the world, according to official data.

The government's spending on road infrastructure has grown 6.4 times between 2013–14 and 2024–25, and the budget allocation for road transport and highways has seen a 57 per cent increase from 2014 to 2023–24 as part of the big push to infrastructure that has been driving economic growth and creating jobs in the country.

--IANS

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