Road Construction Department as a premier works department of Government of Bihar conducts planning, designing, construction, improvement, strengthening and maintenance of roads and bridges, including flyovers, ROBs and elevated corridors. Construction, up-gradation and maintenance of road network system comprising roads categorized under National Highways, State Highways and Major District Roads are undertaken to optimize overall transportation and operational cost by developing high quality road infrastructure using the latest construction techniques to accelerate industrial, commercial, agricultural and other social economics developments like tourism and cultural heritage of the state.
Vision
The vision of Road Construction Department is-
Linking State capital with 2/4-lane highways to all the districts so as to reach Patna within 5 hours from the farthest destination.
2-Laning (7.00m) of all single lane/intermediate lane State Highways.
Widening to Intermediate Lane (5.50m) of all single lane Major District Roads.
Replacement of SP Bridges/Narrow and Damaged Bridges/Culverts, Causeway by RCC H.L. Bridge.
Adequate connectivity to Tourist, Cultural Heritage, Special Agricultural Production Area and important Markets in the State.
Development of rural roads:-
it brings multiple socio-economic benefits to the rural areas which form a strong base of the National economy. The connectivity of rural habitations through good all weather roads has brought appreciable impact on Agriculture, Employment Generation, Industry, Health, Education, Transport facilities, Urbanization, Poverty Alleviation. The Government of Bihar (GOB) is committed to an all round Social and Economic development of the State. Recognising the role played by an efficient and high quality road network to the rural community. Towards this end, an elaborate programme of rural road development needs to be quickly initiated. The responsibilities of construction of rural roads (with necessary culverts and cross-drainage structures) lie with the Rural Works Department.
Vision
The enormous task of building and maintaining roads poses a formidable challenge in so far assuring the quality technical workmanship and overall output along with real time rectification interventions is concerned. Given the manpower constraint of the department,system of various tiers of inspection, testing and measurements, reporting and rectification complied with engineering and administrative interventions is therefore urgently required.
Objective
The rural roads are built up according to standards and specifications led down by Ministry of Rural Development (MoRD),Government of India in consultation with Indian Road Congress (IRC).From the design stage to construction and Maintenance stage, the roads have to pass through rigorous specifications in terms Of geometrics, construction materials,technical standards and the whole gamut of Engineering parameters. In addition to these standards and specifications, an Integral maintenance provision for 5 years in the EPC contract is the near hallmark of the rural connectivity program.
Executive Summary
Bihar figures among states with very poor rural connectivity. Out of a total of 129209 habitations identified in Central, State Core Networks and Supplementary State Core Network of rural connectivity, the state has been able to provide connectivity to 68174 habitations by single all-weather roads till date. Out of these 68174 habitations, about 45672 habitations have been covered under the centrally- sponsored flagship scheme Pradhan Mantri Gram Sadak Yojana (PMGSY) and the rest 22493-odd habitations under various state schemes, mainly under the state sponsored supplementary flagship schemes called Mukhya Mantri Gram Sadak Yojana and its successor Mukhya Mantri Gram Sampark Yojana (MMGSY). To put in brief,the state has the arduous task of providing connectivity to remaining about 61035 habitations in the next 5 years, including about 5156 under PMGSY and the rest under MMGSY and GTSNY.
The other way to look at the broad picture is to examine the road lengths to be constructed in rural Bihar. The state had to build a total of 129473 km of rural roads and till date a total of 68591 km, including about 45832 km under PMGSY has been built. The state has to build another 60882 km of road length, including about 10937 km under PMGSY.
The State Government has resolved to complete this ambitious task in next 4 years. This will require a stupendous investment of about Rs. 65500 Cr, out of which just about Rs.12000 Cr will come from the Central Government share under PMGSY which is now being funded as a 60:40 centrally sponsored scheme. This implies the State Government has to mobilise about Rs. 53500 Cr in the next 4 years. Obviously an emerging state like Bihar finds it extremely difficult to mobilise such huge sums of public investment.
The Urban Development & Housing Department
About Us
The Urban Development & Housing Department is the nodal Department for ensuring appropriate and planned growth of cities and towns with adequate infrastructure, amenities and services provided to the citizens of Bihar through the Urban Local Bodies and parastatal agencies. The Department has been instrumental in carrying out various concrete measures for efficient management & delivery of civic services like provision of affordable housing, safe drinking water, sanitation including solid waste management, storm water drainage, sewerage, roads, public transport; and creation of livelihood opportunities by accelerating economic growth of cities/towns and building capacity of the urban poor. The Housing and Urban Development Department is headed by the Minister, The Principal Secretary, UDHD is the administrative head of the Department.
Urbanization is a concomitant of a combination of factors such as broad-based industrialization, growing real per capita income, division of labour, specialization, economies of scale, technological advancement, up gradation of skills, well-knit market network, emerging service sector, etc. Thus, urbanization is the outcome of ‘economic’ and ‘demographic’ growth process. An increasing urban population along with migration for want of employment opportunities from rural to urban areas exerts tremendous pressure on various basic amenities. Consequently, drinking water, sewage, sanitation, housing and urban transport prove to be woefully inadequate to meet the growing requirements of the inhabitants. The worst affected ones are the poor in urban areas. As more urban conglomerations grow without adequate infrastructure, the problems would be further aggravated. Therefore, the challenge before the Department is to guide the process of urbanization and to ensure that services viz., sanitation, water supply and basic housing are provided to urban residents along with transportation and other infrastructural facilities.
LEVEL OF URBANIZATION IN BIHAR :
According to 2011 census, rate of urbanisation in Bihar is only 11.3 % compared to the national average of 31.2 %. The State accounts for 8.6 % of India’s total population, but it has only 3.1 % of country’s total urban population.
URBAN LOCAL BODIES :
Total Urban population resides in Urban Local Bodies. At present there are total 142 Urban Local Bodies in bihar which comprises of,
Nagar Nigam – 12
Nagar Parishad – 49
Nagar Panchayat – 81
44% of the urban population of Bihar resides in the Nagar Nigams (towns with more than 2 lakh population), 32% resides in Nagar Parishads (towns with population between 40,000 and 2,00,000) and 24% resides in Nagar Panchayats (towns with population between 12,000 and 40,000).
To improve the living conditions in urban areas, a number of development program are now being implemented by the Department through ULB.
Drinking Water Supply: The State Government has embarked on an ambitious plan to provide piped drinking water supply to all households by 2019 through AMRUT mission, State Plan and Mukhya Mantri Har Ghar Nal ka Jal Nischay Yojana.
Roads and Drains: waterlogging is one of the major problems in urban areas in Bihar, the State Government and ULBs are collaborating in constructing extensive drainage systems in the urban areas. While large outfall drains and multi-ward drains are being sanctioned by the State Government under AMRUT or the State Plan, the smaller drains are being taken up by the ULBs under the “Mukhya Mantri Shahari Pakki NaliGali Nischay Yojana” (funded through State Funds as well as State Finance Commission funds).
Sewerage: Under the “Namani Gange” Scheme of the Central Government, towns located along the river Ganga have been targeted for cleaning and rejuvenation of the river.
Sanitation: The construction of toilets was commenced under the “Sauchalaya Nirman Ghar ka Samman Nischay” of the State Government and the Swachh Bharat Mission project of the Central Government . The State Government is giving funds at the rate of Rs 1200 per household per year to all ULBs as Swachhata Anudan for assisting them in the provision of sanitation and solid waste management activities.
Housing and shelter: “Housing for All” Mission for urban area will be implemented during 2015-2022 and this Mission will provide central assistance to implementing agencies through States and UTs for providing houses to all eligible families/beneficiaries by 2022. Mission will be implemented as Centrally Sponsored Scheme (Central share-75%, State Share-25%) except for the component of credit linked subsidy which will be implemented as a Central Sector Scheme. The State has also notified its Affordable Housing and Slum Rehabilitation and Redevelopment Policy in 2017 under which minimum 35% EWS units shall be sold to eligible beneficiaries in order to avail the benefits of Housing for all scheme.
Civic Amenities: The State Government intends taking up park development in all ULBs. An Inter State Bus Terminus is being developed in Patna and 38 bus stands have been constructed in various cities. The State Government has signed an Umbrella MoU in February 2018 with Energy Efficiency Services Ltd (EESL), a JV of four PSUs of the Ministry of Power, GoI for replacement of all inefficient street lights with LED lights.
HRIDAY: The city of Gaya in Bihar has been taken up under the National Heritage City Development and Augmentation Yojana (HRIDAY) scheme, which aims to preserve and revitalize soul of the heritage city to reflect the city’s unique character by encouraging aesthetically appealing, accessible, informative & secured environment by developing core heritage infrastructure projects.
National Urban Livelihood Mission: Under the Employment through Skill Training and Placement (EST&P), skill training is being provided to BPL youth with focus on placements. The State has notified the Street Vending Rules and in several cities vending zones are under construction.
Vision
To achieve a coherent, homogeneous, comprehensive, faster and sustainable growth in Bihar by ensuring planned and all-inclusive development of cities/towns into livable, economically vibrant and productive, sustainable and efficient entities with provision of adequate and durable public infrastructure and amenities including affordable housing and livelihood opportunities for all sections of society and bringing out efficiency in the service delivery mechanisms, community participation and accountability of Urban Local Bodies and parastatal agencies towards citizens, in convergent manner.