Bihar: ADB Sanctions $295 Million Loan For Upgrading 265 Km State Highways To Two-Lane

In a major boost to the state's infrastructure, the Asian Development Bank (ADB) has approved a $295 million loan to widen and upgrade around 265 kilometre of state highways in Bihar.

An agreement to this effect was signed between Additional Secretary, Department of Economic Affairs (DEA), Vumlunmang Vualnam and Takeo Konishi, Country Director for ADB in India.

This project would support Bihar government to upgrade all state highways to standard two-lane widths with road safety features and paved shoulders including reconstructing, widening, and strengthening culverts and bridges. The government is contributing $156.6 million to the project. 

The highways will be upgraded with climate- and disaster-resilient design, road safety elements, and other features that will respond to the needs of the elderly, women, children, and people with disabilities. 

The improved roads will enhance connectivity in some of Bihar's poorest rural districts and promote access to health and education facilities and markets to improve people's lives, it added.

Five Loans

Since 2008, it has provided five loans totaling $1.63 billion to the state of Bihar which have upgraded about 1,696 kilometre of state highways and constructed a new bridge over the Ganga River. 

The Bihar State Highways Project was the first project funded by ADB in the state’s road sector. ADB approved $420 million in September 2008 to rehabilitate 825 km of state highways. The project was rated successful and closed on 31 July 2012, as scheduled.

ADB approved the $300 million Bihar State Highways II Project in September 2010 to rehabilitate 389 km of state highways. The lender approved $300 million in additional financing in September 2012 to rehabilitate an additional 254 km of state highways.

Apart from this, in 2016, the ADB approved the New Ganga Bridge Project to support the construction of a new road bridge across the Ganges River and an integrated approach roadway network in Bihar.

The alignment for the project involves constructing a new six-lane extradosed cable bridge over the river Ganga from Kachchi Dargah in District Patna on NH-30 to Bidupur in Vaishali district on NH-103 in Bihar.

The project is to improve transport connectivity between north and south Bihar, which is divided by the Ganges River, and better link Patna, the state capital city, and the surrounding areas.