With Bihar Cabinet’s administrative sanction on Tuesday, decks were cleared for the construction of the Centrally funded Panduka bridge over Sone river in south Bihar.
The union ministry of road transport and highways has allocated ₹210.13 crore for the construction of the 2.2 kilometre bridge over Sone river, connecting Panduka in Rohtas district of south Bihar to Shrinagar in Garhawa district of Jharkhand, under Central Road and Infrastructure Fund (CRIF).
Bihar Rajya Pul Nirman Nigam will construct the bridge by 2024. Its detailed project report (DPR) was already sanctioned and tender notices issued. At list 68 kilometres of road would be also constructed under the plan, additional chief secretary, Cabinet, Sanjay Kumar told the press.
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For several decades, 600,000 people from many tribes and scheduled castes residing in the Maoist-affected hilly forest region adjoining Bihar, Jharkhand, Uttar Pradesh and Chhattisgarh, have been demanding the construction of the bridge.
The inapproachable area, spread over four states and four parliamentary constituencies on the Kaimur plateau, forms a major part of the Maoists’ red corridor due to lack of connectivity and development.
In the 2019 elections, the BJP had won the Sasaram (SC) parliamentary constituency in Bihar, Palamu (SC) in Jharkhand, Surguja (ST) in Chhattisgarh and its ally Aapna Dal won in Robertsganj (ST) in UP, riding high on the claims that if voted to power, it would get the most sought-after bridge completed before the 2024 polls.
Its construction would reduce 80 to 150 kilometres of additional distance to Varanasi, Delhi or other towns via Aurangabad for treatment, education and other necessities, Chhedi Paswan, BJP MP from Sasaram said.
Paswan said that the bridge was approved and ₹500 crore was allocated for its construction in annual plan 2018-19. But the fund had been relocated to Vikramshila bridge. Later, union minister Nitin Gadakari intervened and the project was sanctioned under CRIF last year, Paswan said.
