Connectivity on Paper: Collapsing, Pending Bridges Point to Jerks in Bihar's Infrastructure Journey

While poll-bound Bihar’s demands have moved beyond Chief Minister Nitish Kumar’s age-old poll promise of ‘bijli, paani aur sadak’ ; collapsing bridges, unconstructed sanctioned projects and the urgency to launch new ones point towards hidden cracks in the state’s 15-year-old ‘sushasan’. In an exclusive conversation with News18, Bihar’s Road Construction Minister Nand Kishore Yadav said that the focus of the state government has been to build bridges over the 6 major rivers in the state- Ganga, Son, Kosi, Gandak, Baghmati and Phalgu. The approach road to the bridge near Begusarai’s Sahebpur Kamal is still not operational due to disputed land in the line of the project. Why Bihar Needs to Expedite its Halted Projects According to a research by Central European University’s Associate Professor of Economics Miklos Koren, “A bridge is useful as it lets you trade with the other side of the river and it reduces the trade costs between the two sides of the river.” The research also suggests that bridges lead to increase in gross income, allow for more traffic being directed to cities, so cities could thrive and sustain themselves.